Green is the way to go, even for an airline whose image is built on sky blue – KLM. As plane tickets are set to become dearer with the introduction of a new eco-tax, KLM has launched an environmentally-friendly action of its own, giving passengers the opportunity to pay another additional charge to compensate for their flight.

At least one newspaper was lauding KLM’s latest publicity gimmick as a ‘world premier’ today. The deal is that KLM passengers can make their flights ‘climate neutral’ by voluntarily paying a surcharge when booking their tickets.
So, for example, you can buy off your guilty feelings for adding to carbon dioxide emissions by digging oh so deep into your pocket and paying an extra €6.50 on your return trip to New York.
Of course, you could also just ask yourself, or your boss, if the trip is really necessary in these days of cheap and easy global communications. Isn’t the latter even more environmentally effective?
Maybe KLM just didn’t think of this solution. Because according to its promotional blurb, its CO2 ZERO inititative ‘approved by the World Wildlife Fund’ is ‘simply the easiest, most effective and cheapest way to fly CO2 neutrally’. And it’s also the easiest, most effective and cheapest way to get publicity.