Up next: a ‘green tax’ on frequent flyers?

The more you fly, the more you’ll pay…

By David Flynn, November 18 2024
Up next: a ‘green tax’ on frequent flyers?

Several airlines are already considering charging passengers an ‘environmental cost surcharge’ as they confront 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, new proposals take aim at frequent flyers by charging people for how many trips they make in a year.

At last week's United Nations COP29 climate change conference in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, a tax on frequent flyers was tabled as one measure to help raise money from developed nations to support developing countries in transitioning to cleaner economies.

The Global Solidarity Levies taskforce – which is backed by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres – advocates “taxation of high-emitting sectors, which has the potential to raise significant amounts of revenue that could be used to fill the climate financing gap.”

Among the taxes outlined in the group’s COP29 Interim Progress Report are a ticket levy “which would be mandatory at a higher rate on luxury tickets (business, first, private)”, along with a “a frequent flying levy with a rate that would progressively increase with the number of flights taken by a passenger each year.”

Under the proposal, frequent flyers would be charged US$9 (AUD$14) on top of their airfare for their second flight within a year.

This surcharge would increase with every additional flight they take, up to US$177 (AUD$274) for their twentieth flight within the same year.

This is estimated to raise US$121 billion per year in financial assistance for develop countries as they move away from a high-emission culture.

The taskforce also suggests “a levy of US$30 on economy seats and US$120 on premium class seats with global coverage on domestic and international flights would raise US$164 billion per year with global coverage on domestic and international flights, and 58 billion per year when applied only to high-income countries and only international flights.”

A European frequent flyer tax?

As previously reported, environmental campaign groups Stay Grounded and the New Economics Foundation (NEF) have floated the idea of a European ‘frequent flyer tax’ to raise money while discouraging unnecessary flights.

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 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.

Etihad - Etihad Guest

21 Jul 2019

Total posts 190

Never act on advice from a group (or two), or anybody for that matter, who is self-loathing. They're not out for your best interests.

QFF

19 Sep 2013

Total posts 209

Sheer stupidity. The actual CO2 emissions per passenger in most aircraft is well below that of a vehicle which has 1-2 passengers. Won’t achieve anything except increase airfares even more.

04 Sep 2019

Total posts 66

lol twentieth flight... I fly more than that in 3months

Etihad - Etihad Guest

21 Jul 2019

Total posts 190

Oh, please. Let us not even pretend this is anything but another tax impost dressed up as "green". It's reached a stage where many of us actively hate the word "green" because it's been hijacked by governments and corporations to further their wallets and burnish their dubious reputations.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

05 Oct 2016

Total posts 116

Another money making scam of the great climate hoax. 

05 Sep 2023

Total posts 6

Flying is expensive enough and I fly for work, sometimes out of my own pocket because I chose to move interstate to buy my first property. This is just a cash grab. This tax should be more aimed at those flying private than on a commercial aircraft which is basically a flying bus in the scheme of things.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

23 May 2018

Total posts 28

What a joke another tax to help China build more coal fired power stations. The sooner we are out of the UN the better.

11 Mar 2012

Total posts 315

So will these delegates flying in on their private jets cop it harder than the rest of us? Farcical.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

10 Jun 2019

Total posts 5

So if I take 15-20 flights for the year for work and then have a family holiday im slugged with an increased "green" tax for leisure travel?  

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

15 Jan 2024

Total posts 2

Is there a Green tax on cruises, buses, car racing tickets, motor cycle races etc???

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

15 Jan 2024

Total posts 2

It is revenue raising for developing countries, China being one of those so called developing countries

29 Jan 2012

Total posts 184

What a load of rubbish - really! Tax taking and revenue raising is now out of control and beyond a joke.

Velocity

19 Jun 2013

Total posts 66

Can we say “wealth transfer”, children?

And no, 11sjw, the WEF/COP types in private jets won’t pay a cent of any of this. It’s only for us plebs. But just wait until some faceless bureaucrat tells you, based on your social credit score, that you’re only entitled to one short/medium haul flight per year. 

12 Dec 2012

Total posts 1031

Someone looked at UK APD and decided "what can we do to make that worse in the dumbest way possible"

Air Canada - Aeroplan

28 Feb 2015

Total posts 120

What constitutes a "flight"? When I fly from Canada to Australia (destination not SYD or MEL), I have no choice but to fly four sectors to get there. Is that one flight or is it four? Because it takes 36 hours, I buy Business because as a senior, Economy would be truly hideous (I've done it, so I know). So will I have to pay 4 x the green tax on top of a five-figure ticket?


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