News item | 15-01-2025 | 11:50
What do you think about taxing long-haul flights more heavily? The government wants to increase the revenue from the air travel tax from 1 January 2027 by taxing long-haul flights more heavily. The aim of this is to tax the higher emissions of long-haul flights more heavily and to generate €248 million in additional revenue. The government wants to involve interested parties in the development of this tax. From January 15 to February 26, 2025, they can give their opinion on the distance-dependent air passenger tax by answering various questions, so that this can be included in the further development of the plans.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of flights depart from Schiphol to destinations all over the world. This means that an international customer, family visit or holiday can be reached within a relatively short time. Flying also has many disadvantages for the environment and people’s health, such as the release of CO2 and particulate matter. Local residents also have to deal with noise pollution from airports.
To price the negative consequences of flying, there has been an air travel tax since 2021. This is now in the form of a fixed rate per passenger, which means that the same amount of air travel tax is now due on the flight to Bali as to Italy. The government wants to change this and thereby increase the revenue from the air passenger tax by € 248 million per year.
The plan is to tax long-distance flights with higher total emissions from 2027 onwards. The Netherlands hereby joins other European countries that have already implemented this method of tariff differentiation. Research is currently being conducted into different variants of the air passenger tax and the impact of the measure. For example, when developing the air passenger tax, the effects on people, the environment and businesses must be taken into account.
Internet consultation
In addition to the above studies, the government attaches great importance to the opinions of interested parties, so that this can be taken into account in the decision on the design of this tax. A questionnaire has been drawn up for this purpose. For example, do you think that longer flights should be taxed more heavily than short flights? And does extra tax have to be paid on very short flights, because you can also travel by car or train?
From January 15 to February 26, 2025 you can respond to the questionnaire on distance-dependent air passenger tax via internetconsultatie.nl.