Like many other decisions in France, the air tax issue has been delayed due to the summer's new elections. But last week, the Senate and National Assembly passed significant increases.
The lowest tax, on economy tickets within the EU, rises from 2.63 euros to 7.40 (83 kronor). So relatively small sums, but in business class, the surcharges increase to between 30 and 120 euros.
The difference is most pronounced for private flights, where the increase can reach up to 1,000 percent. The extreme case becomes a private flight exceeding 550 miles, with a new tax of 2,100 euros, i.e., 23,500 kronor.
"Ecological justice"
Polluting "luxury travel" is an explicitly stated goal.
It's about economic and ecological justice, says the responsible minister Amélie de Montchalin to the newspaper Le Parisien.
The richest fifth of the population is behind more than half of the costs of flying.
The initiative is even called the solidarity tax. Nowadays, solidarity is interpreted as linked to the climate, and that the world's poor are hardest hit by the weather changes caused by flying's fossil fuels.
Chirac and Lula
But from the beginning, it was much broader, as hinted by another nickname for the program, the Chirac tax. It was then-President Jacques Chirac and his Brazilian counterpart Lula da Silva who, at a summit on aid in Paris in 2005, proposed new financing to help the world's poor.
Besides France and Brazil, Chile, Norway, and the UK joined as founding countries for an international effort where air taxes would go to aid efforts. In total, about 30 countries signaled that they would join, and the organization Unitaid was formed for this purpose.
But then interest waned. Several countries, such as Norway and the UK, contributed – and still contribute – to Unitaid, but the only ones who fully followed the plan were Chile and France.
Clear connection
20 years later, air taxes exist in several countries, including Sweden, which, however, will abolish them this summer on the initiative of the Tidöregeringen.
And France is the country where the tax has most clearly retained a connection to aid, even though the revenue is now divided up there as well.
Up to a certain ceiling, the money goes to aid. If more revenue comes in, it is earmarked for green travel, such as railways. There is also a ceiling for this, so if the air tax generates a lot of revenue, the surplus goes to the general state treasury.
Corrected: An earlier version of the text mentioned an incorrect timing for France's latest election.
France was one of the countries that was early to introduce a separate tax to get people to fly less. But for a long time, it was so low that many hardly noticed it. A selection of the French taxes from the introduction almost 20 years ago:
2006–2019:
Economy class within EU: 1 euro. Long-distance: 4 euros.
Business class within EU: 10 euros. Long-distance: 40 euros.
2020–2024:
Economy class within EU: 2.63 euros. Long-distance: 7.51 euros.
Business class within EU: 20.27 euros. Long-distance: 63.07 euros.
New rules this year:
Economy class within EU: 7.40 euros. Long-distance: 40 euros.
Business class within EU: 30 euros. Long-distance: 120 euros.
For private flights, the rules are more complicated, with different taxes depending on the type of aircraft. But these amounts are now increasing the most, to between 210 and 2,100 euros per trip.
However, there are exempt destinations that avoid the air tax, including Corsica in the Mediterranean and other, more distant, French territories around the world.
Sources: Légifrance and French media
