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.