Lufthansa customers face hike in fees with environmental surcharge

People flying with German airline Lufthansa will in future have to pay more for tickets. 

That’s because the company is levying an environmental surcharge on its flights. This is intended to pass on the costs incurred by EU climate protection regulations to customers, the firm said.

The fares will increase by between €1 and €72 depending on the flight. It will affect all flights departing from the 27 EU countries as well as the UK, Norway and Switzerland. 

Some of the hikes will come into force from June 26th for departures from January 1st 2025. 

Lufthansa said it couldn’t manage the costs alone for regulations, such as sustainable aviation fuels. 

It comes as the cost of flying in Germany has already shot up following the pandemic and a recent passenger ticket tax hike. 

READ ALSO: Is budget air travel in Germany on the decline?

SPD parliamentary group wants to see abortions legalised in Germany

The Social Democrats’ parliamentary group in the Bundestag is campaigning for abortions to be legal in Germany in the early stages of pregnancy.

Under current German law, abortion is illegal but tolerated in practice for women who are up to 12 weeks pregnant and have received compulsory counselling. There are exceptions, such as for women who have been raped or whose life is in danger.

Politicians in the centre-left party, which is governing in a coalition with the Greens and Free Democrats, want to remove abortion from the German criminal code 

The SPD parliamentary group is in favour of “an alternative regulation of abortions outside the penal code with a better protection concept for unborn life”, a position paper states. 

It comes after a commission set up by the government earlier this year called the current situation “untenable” and urged the government to “take action to make abortion legal and unpunishable” in the first trimester.

READ ALSO:

• ‘Untenable’ – Legalise abortions in the first trimester, urges German commission
• Will abortion in Germany soon become legal?

Turkish community in Germany expects 50,000 citizenship applications per year under new law

Germany’s new citizenship law, which will allow dual citizenship for all, comes into force on Thursday. 

The chairman of the Turkish community in Germany, Gökay Sofuoglu, said he expects a sharp rise in naturalisation applications from the Turkish community following the significant rule change.

“People have now internalised that there will be dual citizenship,” he told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland newspapers.

“And many are now applying as quickly as possible.”

Sofuoglu said he expects “50,000 applications per year” from this community.

However, processing will take time. In some cities, it is difficult to get an appointment at the immigration offices due to backlogs.

Applicants have in mind that they will be able to take part in the Bundestag elections next year once they have been naturalised, said Sofuoglu.

“I therefore appeal to the parties to realise that the applicants are potential voters,” he said, urging politicians to speed up the processes. 

READ ALSO:

• Which foreign residents are likely to become German after citizenship law change?
• German conservatives vow to overturn dual citizenship if elected

Hamburg airport hostage-taker jailed for 12 years

A Turkish man who brought Hamburg airport to a standstill last year by taking his four-year-old daughter hostage was sentenced to 12 years in jail on Tuesday.

The 35-year-old barricaded himself and the child in his car at the foot of a Turkish Airlines plane in November, demanding to be allowed to board in a dramatic custody dispute.

The incident led to the suspension of flights at the airport in northern Germany, with questions asked about how the man had been able to ram his car through the security area onto the apron where the plane was parked.

The suspect was found guilty of hostage taking, among other things, a spokeswoman for the regional court in Hamburg said.

Ukraine slams calls to limit help for war refugees in Germany

Kyiv’s ambassador to Berlin has hit back against “populist” calls for Ukrainian refugees in Germany to find a job or go back to their war-torn home country.

Senior conservative politician Alexander Dobrindt on Sunday told the weekly Bild am Sonntag that Ukrainians should “start working or return to safe areas in west Ukraine”.

The comments by Dobrindt, the leader of the Bavarian conservatives (CSU) in parliament, added to a growing backlash in Germany against the help offered to Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion.

READ ALSO: German politicians want to cut benefits for Ukrainian refugees

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the German government waived the need for Ukrainians to apply for asylum, with refugees given the automatic right to stay in the country and draw unemployment benefit.

But Dobrindt and other conservative figures have called on Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz to trim the support given to Ukrainians.

The remarks by Dobrindt and others were “somewhat impersonal and very populist”, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany Oleksii Makeiev told broadcaster Phoenix.

The German government says around one million Ukrainians have settled in the country since the start of the war, about 170,000 of whom have found work, according to the labour ministry.

Between 5.5 to six billion euros ($5.9 to $6.4 billion) have been earmarked this year by Germany to support Ukrainians still in the country.

Germany has sought to encourage more Ukrainians to find a job, while the labour market in the country is tight and many professions face shortages.

With reporting by Rachel Loxton