A new study proposing a different approach to air travel taxes has revealed some surprising information about who flies and how much.
Numbers of European countries have experimented with taxes on air travel, such as the UK Air Passenger Duty, most often to raise revenue, but often with a cover of reducing carbon emissions.
The taxes have often been attacked as unfairly burdensome to lower-income families on their one vacation. The proposal by the group Stay Grounded, which advocates for less flying, would exempt anyone’s first two round trips in a year from their proposed tax, answering that complaint. The plan proposes a uniform tax across the EU.
From there, in their proposal, the tax would start at €50, increasing incrementally with each added flight. There would also be extra charges for business-class seats. The study claims few people would be affected as only 1/10 of Europeans fly three or more round trips, and 50% of Europeans don’t fly at all in a given year.
On the other hand, Stay Grounded says, the charges on frequent and business flyers would provide a pool of billions of Euros for infrastructure improvements on the ground and for other environmental mitigation.
