Airlines Want Germany and France to Scrap Aviation Tax
Perturbed by the decision of France and Germany to increase aviation tax, the European airlines have demanded both governments to urgently withdraw the move to save the aviation industry and its stakeholders.
While Germany has already announced to increase the aviation tax, France is planning to raise aviation taxes to compensate for the country’s national debt, which is currently around $3.66 trillion.
Lufthansa criticised Germany for its excessive government levies, which makes the country unattractive for aviation. Citing Swedish government’ decision to abolish aviation tax from July 2025, the airlines in EU urged Germany and France to follow suit.
Airline seat capacity in Germany is scheduled to reach only 87% of 2019 levels in 2024, compared with 102% for Europe as a whole. Germany is the only one of Europe’s five biggest markets not to exceed 2019 capacity levels in 2024.
Whilst other EU markets, such as Hungary, Italy, Poland, and Sweden, were cutting or abolishing their aviation taxes, Germany, which has increased the same by 24%, the second highest in the European Union (EU) and was damaging Germany’s air travel industry. Germany’s air travel recovery lags far behind the rest of Europe at just 82% of its pre-COVID levels – the lowest in Europe, Ryanair said.
Ryanair’s CEO Eddie Wilson said that Germany’s air travel market is broken and needs an urgent fix. Germany has only recovered 82% of its pre-COVID traffic which is by far the worst performance of any EU State. As a result of these high Government taxes (the highest in Europe), and Lufthansa’s high-fare monopoly, German citizens/visitors now pay the highest air fares in Europe, he said.
If these high taxes were not reduced, Ryanair will cut another 1.5 million seats from its German capacity (-10%) for Summer 2025 and switch this capacity to other lower cost EU countries like Italy, Poland, Spain, and Portugal.
These reductions will further damage inbound tourism, and Germany’s post-COVID recovery, whilst its competitors in the EU, with much lower or zero aviation taxes/fees, enjoy the benefit of traffic growth which is being switched from high cost uncompetitive Germany, the airline said.
Reduce ATC and Securities Fees
In addition to scrapping the aviation tax, Ryanair has also called on Germany to urgently reduce its air traffic control (ATC) charges, which it says have doubled since 2019, and defer the 50% increase in security fees, scheduled for January 2025.
It may be recalled that Germany on May 1 raised aviation taxes in a bid to help close a financing gap in the 2024 federal budget. The government said that the move was climate friendly and the increased tax on departures from Germany plus several other measures including abolishing subsidised agricultural diesel will contribute necessary additional revenue.
Even other stake holders – three major aviation trade groups – have expressed concern over the government’s decision.
The German Aviation Association, which advocates for airlines, airports, German air traffic control and other service providers, Board of Airline Representatives in Germany (BARIG), which represents the interests of national and international airlines operating to and from Germany, and International Air Transport Association (IATA), comprising global airlines warned that besides competitive concerns, they the decision will reduce the ability for airlines to invest in decarbonisation.
IATA’s Director General Willie Walsh said that when Germany’s economic performance was anaemic at best, denting its competitiveness with more taxes on aviation was policy madness.
“The government should be prioritising measures to improve Germany’s competitive position and encouraging trade and travel. Instead, they have gone for a short-term cash-grab which can only damage the economy’s long-term growth,” he explained.
