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The Dutch advertising watchdog ruled that a KLM promotion telling customers they could fly carbon-emission free is misleading. The ad’s tag line, “Be a hero, fly CO2 zero,” is an absolute claim, the Dutch Advertising Code Committee said in a verdict seen Friday by Bloomberg. As such, the company has the burden of proving the statement and didn’t meet that test, the committee said. A spokesman for the airline, the Dutch arm of Air France-KLM, declined to comment. While the ruling is limited to only one carrier, it touches on broader pressure on airlines to lower their carbon footprint and ‘flight-shaming’ campaigns to get people to stopping flying. Commercially viable alternatives like electric and hydrogen powered jetliners are at least a decade away so carriers are relying on measures like carbon offsetting to reduce impact. Airlines are now buying carbon offsets, or offering customers the option pay extra for them, to convince travelers that, on a net basis, their trips won’t contribute to global warming. These programs, which include tree planting and forest protection, have been criticized as insufficient, misleading or impossible to validate. A similar debate swirls around so-called sustainable aviation fuel, an element in airlines’ CO2-reduction plans. Lufthansa has been touting a “fly CO2 neutral” program, which it says “enables passengers to keep an eye on their travel activities and to compensate for the CO2 emissions inevitably caused by their flight.” EasyJet Plc says it has been offsetting carbon emissions from fuel used on all flights across its network since November 2019.<br/>

Air France-KLM said on Thursday it would postpone until as late as October 1 a plan to add a $28 roundtrip surcharge on corporate travel sales agencies that don’t use a data exchange method it prefers. The Franco-Dutch group was backpedaling from a more aggressive launch plan. Last month, the airline group said it would add a surcharge to corporate bookings by May 1. France’s business travel employers’ association protested, Preferente reported. Air France-KLM said on Thursday it would continue to pursue a carrot-and-stick approach to business travel agencies, using a mix of fees and exclusive content to encourage more agencies to adopt the newer methods. It said that more than 20 percent of its plane tickets sold worldwide by corporate travel agencies already came via newer, more modern forms of selling. “Air France-KLM is on a promising pilot phase with all global TMCs [travel management companies] and key local business agencies to jointly prepare the transition [to the newer method],” said a spokesperson. Air France-KLM now hopes to do to corporate travel what it has done with leisure travel. In 2018, it began pushing leisure travel agencies to switch from using old technical methods, known by the shorthand “Edifact,” to a newer process referred to loosely as the “New Distribution Capability, or NDC.” It slapped a surcharge on leisure bookings done via the old way. It recently raised this fee to about $14 one-way.<br/>

Italy's Treasury has invited suitors interested in buying the majority of ITA Airways to express their formal interest in the carrier by April 18, three sources close to the matter said. ITA took over from Alitalia in October, permanently grounding the 75-year-old, one-time symbol of Italian style and glamour after years of financial losses and failed rescue attempts. Shipping group MSC and Lufthansa have expressed interest in buying a majority stake in ITA and requested an exclusivity period of 90 days to iron out details of an acquisition. But Rome opted for a market-based procedure aimed at keeping the door open to other potential suitors. Last month the Treasury picked Equita and Gianni & Origoni as financial and legal advisers for the privatisation of ITA Airways, which is fully owned by the government. "Advisers have invited several players in the airline sector to formalise their interest in ITA," one of the sources said. The carrier has lined up JPMorgan and Mediobanca to help on the search for private investors, two different sources added. The government wants to clinch a deal on the sale by mid-June, two sources close to the matter told Reuters last week. In past decades, Alitalia tried and failed to clinch alliances with Air France and, more recently, Gulf airline Etihad. Delta last month said it wanted to deepen its commercial ties with ITA Airways but was not interested in taking an equity stake in the carrier.<br/>

Korean Air has entered an agreement related to the backbone that will be necessary for a future urban air mobility network. The agreement will see the carrier work with South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) for research and development. Korean Air says its role will develop control and simulation systems for urban air mobility operators. The flight control system will help in flight planning, monitoring and schedule management, while the operator simulator system will simulate flights from preparatory stage to the end of the flight, the airline adds. It is also working on urban air mobility traffic management systems, which the airline says covers areas such as flight plan approval, flight monitoring, and emergency response. The announcement marks the latest urban air mobility foray for the carrier. In late-December 2021, the entered an agreement with with South Korea’s Defense Technology Promotion Institute related to research into low-observable technologies for unmanned air vehicles. It followed Korean Air’s securing a contract in September to develop a low-observable UAV to advance South Korea’s stealth technology.<br/>