€400 ‘green tax’ for Europe’s frequent flyers

Several European airlines are already considering charging passengers an ‘environmental cost surcharge’ as they face up to climate change goals, but frequent flyers could feel the sharpest sting of all.

Current ‘green tax’ surcharges such as those of Lufthansa and Swiss vary from €1 to €72, depending on both the length of the flight and what class you’re travelling in.

However, a new proposal takes aim at frequent flyers by charging people for how many trips they make in a year.

Europe’s frequent flyer tax

For the first two flights taken in a year there’d be a €50 surcharge for economy class passengers on medium-range flights, although this would be set at €100 for travellers in business class and first class, as well as anybody on a long-range flight.

For the third and fourth flights, a €50 levy would be added to every plane ticket – with an additional €50 surcharge for medium-range flights, which would double to €100 for first class and business class travellers as well as everyone on long-range flights.

For fifth and sixth flights, the levy would again rise to a baseline of €100 per medium-range flight, plus the additional surcharges.

On the seventh and eighth flights the frequent flyer tax hit €200, before rising to €400 for every flight thereafter.

The proposal, by environmental campaign groups Stay Grounded and the New Economics Foundation (NEF), suggests this ‘frequent flyer tax’ could raise €64 billion while also slashing emissions by 20% as increasing fares would discourage unnecessary flights.

Behind the frequent flyer tax

The rationale is to ensure occasional flights remain affordable for lower income groups, while targeting “excessive pollution” caused by wealthier frequent flyers.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re flying to visit your family for the first time in years, or taking a tenth annual flight to your luxury house on the coast: you’ll be paying the same tax for that flight,” explains Stay Grounded’s Magdalena Heuwieser.

“A frequent flying levy would be a fair aviation measure, reducing excessive flights for wealthy passengers, while raising revenues – including to expand and provide affordable railways and public transport.”

The report says studies show 52% of respondents in Western Europe don’t fly at all in any given year, while 11% cent of people fly more than three times a year.

These travel habits are heavily skewed towards the wealthy: 35% of households earning over €100,000 take three or more return flights a year, versus just 5% of households earning less than €20,000.

The frequent flying levy would represent a six-fold increase in European aviation tax revenues, equivalent to around 30% of the EU’s entire annual budget, and would fund public investment needed for the EU to meet its climate targets.

“When it comes to stopping climate breakdown, Europe faces a huge gap in the finance available,” says Sebastian Mang, senior researcher at NEF.

“A frequent flying levy could make a sizeable contribution to the EU’s funds and could be leveraged to generate hundreds of billions in capital for investment in public transport, wind and solar power and nature restoration,” he proposes. 

“At the same time, a portion of the funds should be ring fenced for the EU’s contribution to lower and middle-income countries dealing with the sharp end of the climate crisis.”