German airlines have reacted with outrage after learning
last week that the federal government has provisionally proposed a new
departure tax of up to €26 per passenger. According to draft legislation
reported by various news agencies, the tax would take effect starting Jan. 1,
2011. Passengers would pay €13 on flights of less than 2,550 kilometers and €26
on flights beyond that limit.
The German government has said it wishes to earn €1 billion
per year in combined revenues from the departure tax and the introduction of
the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, which takes effect in 2012.
Airlines protested when German chancellor Angela Merkel
announced her intention to introduce the tax last month, and are even less
happy now that they know the extent of it. They claim German airlines already
are taxed more heavily than carriers in other EU member states and that they
will lose business to airlines flying from neighboring countries.
"We feel many people will switch to Dutch, Belgian,
Swiss or Austrian airports," a spokesman for Air Berlin told EuroBTN. Both
Air Berlin and Lufthansa pointed to the Netherlands, which repealed its departure tax last year after the Dutch economy allegedly lost €1 billion of
business from travelers driving to bordering countries for their flights.
German airlines also pointed out that,
uniquely in Europe, they are subject to full value-added tax of 19 percent on
domestic flights and pay higher airport handling fees. Air Berlin said it hopes
to persuade the government to drop or at least modify the proposed tax, citing
disagreements over its introduction between the country's finance and transport
ministries.