Originally Posted by TightSlot
We are already taxed quite heavily in the UK on the purchase of air tickets within the EU by Gordon Brown. Is any element of that tax for green purposes? If so, could/should that be offset against the new EU tax, otherwise we are surely subject to dual taxation?
Possibly, I am misunderstanding air passenger duty? Please correct me.
I think taxing the fuel is a lot more sane than taxing the passanger. There would be no need to tax the passanger if the fuel is taxed so it may not add much to the real cost of flying. In fact it should make airlines fill the last few seats up as they are in effect taxed if empty or full. With so many airports near boarders it make sence to have a common EU wide taxrate. Full planes will pay less tax per passanger than half empty ones.
it also should put more pressure for direct routing and mean that winglets can reduce the tax bill. Provided the tax is not too high it could make the industry a little greener. I could not see the national goverments allowing it to be so high as to cause signifcant reduction in air travel. It may just take 1-2% off growth. The airlines will not like that but it may also be getting of a lot better than the car user.