The cover under which taxes are levied on airline tickets in countries such as Austria and Germany have changed over the years. Initially, people were quite open about the fact that this only served to improve the state budget, but now the argument is based on supposed climate protection. In the Federal Republic they want to increase the so-called aviation tax again.

The German federal government wants to generate around 650 million additional dollars per year with this measure because it is assumed that demand for air travel will remain high. However, Germany is at the bottom of the list in the EU comparison, because in no other country in the international community is the recovery from the consequences of the corona pandemic lagging as far behind as in the Federal Republic. The Lufthansa Group will most likely pass on the increased taxes directly to passengers. However, in a highly competitive environment, for example with holiday flights, not all providers are likely to succeed in this. Especially not if you fly with providers close to the border who fly from foreign airports where such taxes do not apply.

Of course, one hears from the Green camp that the increase in the aviation tax is intended to protect the climate, but realistically this is quite nonsensical. The point is that the extremely ailing budget of the Federal Republic of Germany receives additional income. As in the past, aviation is a welcome “destination”.

From the original idea to impose a tax on kerosene used for commercial domestic flights, we have now distanced ourselves from it again. The reason behind this is probably that – apart from hand-picked exceptions – it would almost exclusively affect the Lufthansa Group. There are very few domestic German routes that are not served by airlines that belong to the Kranich Group. Domestic traffic in Germany is still far from having recovered from the consequences of the corona pandemic. Passenger volume is approximately half of what the industry was able to achieve in 2019. Some providers, including Easyjet, have almost completely withdrawn from domestic German traffic. This led to sharp increases in ticket prices on the affected routes, which are now served by a monopolist.