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Flying should become more expensive so that we take fewer planes, many parties write in their election manifestos. But there are different ideas about how to achieve that. How expensive will tickets be and who will be able to fly?
At the moment, everyone pays 26.33 euros in tax, or ‘flight tax’, per ticket. This amount applies to all destinations: cheap (and therefore short) flights are taxed relatively more heavily than expensive (and therefore long) flights. Passengers who transfer at Schiphol and cargo planes do not pay this tax.
Many parties want to impose more taxes on flying, except JA21, PVV, FvD, BBB and BVNL. Denk and NSC do not yet have an election manifesto and 50Plus says nothing about it.
For example, the VVD wants to focus on a European kerosene tax. Almost all pro-flight tax parties are in favor of this, except the SP. Aviation does not currently pay VAT or excise duty on fuel.
The SGP would prefer to see a tax on short flights, just like D66 and ChristenUnie. But the latter party, together with the SP and GroenLinks/PvdA, is going one step further with a so-called progressive air travel tax: the more often you fly, the more tax you pay. Another measure that is more often proposed is the distance-dependent tax: the longer the distance, the higher the tax. Volt, D66 and again the Christian Union argue for this.
Eliminate tax exemption
Stefan Grebe from research and consultancy firm CE Delft has conducted research on behalf of the government into the effect of various air passenger taxes.
For example, an excise tax of 50 cents per liter on kerosene, comparable to the tax on other fuels, would lead to average ticket price increases of approximately 10 to 15 percent. In addition, VAT of 9 percent could also be levied, just like on train tickets. “If the excise duty and VAT exemptions were both lifted, we are talking about a price increase of a quarter,” said Grebe.
But the introduction of the kerosene tax is complicated because international aviation treaties need to be adjusted. As a result, it is probably not feasible in the short term, says Grebe.
Taxing long flights more heavily
The distance-dependent tax is comparable to the kerosene tax, for both the tax increases as you travel more kilometers. By introducing the distance tax, an airline does not have the option to refuel cheaper in another country. On the other hand, a kerosene tax encourages aviation to use sustainable fuels. This is not necessarily the case if tax is levied on the distance flown.
What price effect a distance-dependent tax would have is a political choice. According to Grebe, one of the options is to equalize the tax for short and long distances. For a cheap European airline ticket of 100 euros, the current tax of 26 euros is already about 25 percent, while for a long flight of 1000 euros it is only 2.5 percent. If those percentages were equalized, there would be a tax of 250 euros on a long-haul flight.
Combating social inequality
The third option is the frequent flyer tax. 8 percent of Dutch people are responsible for more than 40 percent of all flights and people with a high income fly more often than people with a low income.
It does not matter for the climate who flies a lot, but some parties want to combat social inequality. Grebe: “Travelers who fly a lot often have a high income and/or travel for business. A higher price incentive is therefore needed to reduce the number of flights made by these passengers.”
Milieudefensie, for example, proposes to set a rapidly increasing rate: 40 euros for a first flight, 80 for a second, 160 for a third and 320 euros or more from the fourth flight in a year.
International measures
If any of these measures are introduced, flying will become less obvious, Grebe thinks. The distance-dependent tax is the most effective for the environment, because long flights are the most polluting. But other taxes also lead to less flying, according to research by CE Delft.
How much less depends on the amount of the tax and also the capacity of airports and measures abroad. “With Dutch measures, people will always move to airports across the border. The greater the price differences, the more leakage effects occur,” Grebe warns. “These can be prevented by international measures.”
According to some parties, the money that a higher air passenger tax would yield in the Netherlands should be invested in making aviation more sustainable or in improving the train network.