Sweden’s government, pushed by its coalition partner, the Green party, is considering a new tax on airline tickets, designed to discourage air travel and reduce carbon emissions.
As you can imagine, the proposed tax ($9 on flights in Europe, $49 for long-haul) is facing pushback, not only from many travelers who fear the loss of cheap vacation flights, but also from the airline industry which fears the same thing, and proposes that investing the money in cleaner flying technologies would be a win for everyone.
Tax proponents argue that the airlines are the only transportation industry in Sweden that’s not paying some form of climate tax; opponents point out that other European countries have been down that road with little success, and claim that it results in higher costs with no benefit for the environment.
History has shown that high flight taxes, such as Britain’s now greatly-reduced Air Passenger Duty, caused many travelers to avoid UK flights, and made it difficult for Brits with families in the Caribbean to stay in touch.
