LUFTHANSA BOSS CALLS FOR SOLUTIONS TO CLIMATE CHANGE, NOT BANS

Lufthansa chief executive officer Carsten Spohr opposes flight bans as a way to combat climate change on Thursday in comments made ahead of a major aviation conference, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

"Technology will solve the challenge," Spohr said, adding that solutions were in the works. Lufthansa's newly purchased aircraft emit 30 percent less climate-damaging carbon dioxide than older models, he said. In the future, planes will be powered by synthetic fuels, Spohr added.

He said that discussion of possible flight bans was occasionally irrational and lacking in substance, at an event at the European School of Management and Technology Berlin. He argued a ban on domestic flights in France would have little effect given the small number of connections.

In May, the French National Assembly passed banning some short-haul flights if there is an alternative link by rail that would cover the journey in less than two and a half hours.

Spohr said that after the pandemic, people would want to meet up again in person, adding that the 15 months spent connecting by video conference had been draining. "Data exchange cannot replace physical exchange," Spohr said, ahead of Germany's national aviation conference.

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