Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing has defended the federal government’s plans for a higher ticket tax on passenger flights against criticism. “We have to avoid anything that affects our aviation industry unilaterally and limits its international competitiveness,” said the FDP politician to the “Handelsblatt”.
On Tuesday it became known that the traffic light government wanted to increase the ticket tax on passenger flights due to the budget crisis. This affects all passenger flights that take off from German airports. Plans for a kerosene tax on domestic air traffic are now off the table.
“The kerosene tax, on the other hand, would have encouraged fuel tourism and would also have made it more difficult for us to decarbonize air traffic because it can be easily avoided,” said Wissing. Airlines could simply fill up with untaxed jet fuel at their foreign hubs. “That’s why I campaigned for a European aviation tax from the start.”
Costs are already being passed on to passengers
The ticket tax introduced by the black-yellow government in 2011 brought in almost 1.2 billion euros in revenue for the state last year. Depending on the final destination of the flight, between 12.73 euros and 58.06 euros per ticket are due, which the providers usually pass on to the passengers.
The federal government now wants to generate additional revenue from the tax to a level that compensates for the waiver of the national kerosene tax. A government spokesman had spoken of up to 580 million euros annually. That would be an increase in previous income by around 50 percent.
Wissing also defended the expiration of funding for electric cars in the interview. “It was always clear to us that the environmental bonus cannot be paid in the long term,” explained the minister. “Such bonuses will be integrated into the price at some point and are not a permanent solution.” Politicians should provide more incentives so that the car industry produces cheaper vehicles.
