New “eco” tax for passengers departing Germany
Published: 03/09/2010 - Filed under: News »
From January 1, passengers departing from airports in Germany will have to pay a new eco tax.
The German government has now confirmed the controversial new tax on air travellers will go ahead. Airlines have begun to add the tax to the cost of tickets for travel out of Germany on or after January 1 next year.
Tax levels have been established as €8 per passenger for domestic and inter-Europe flights, €25 for medium-haul and €45 for long-haul services.
But crucially those passengers who are changing planes in Germany (rather than starting their trips in Germany) are spared the new tax provided their transit time is less than 12 hours.
This is commercially important for national airline Lufthansa who says that around 60 per cent of its passengers are flying through, rather than to, a German airport.
So the tax will not impact on a UK passenger flying Lufthansa from London to Tokyo via Munich and neither will it affect a Hong Kong resident flying Lufthansa to Amsterdam via Frankfurt.
The so-called “eco” tax is expected to raise around €1 billion a year. But revenues will go straight into government coffers and will not contribute towards environmental measures.
Says Giovanni Bisignani, CEO of airline trade body IATA: “It’s a tax grab by a cash-strapped government. Painting it green adds insult to injury. There will be no environmental benefit from the economic damage caused.”
Report by Alex McWhirter
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