France wants to levy an environmental tax on airline tickets from the beginning of 2020. The eco-tax will be between €1.50 and €18.00, depending on the type of ticket, said French Transport Minister Élisabeth Borne on Tuesday. The tax will apply to all flights departing from France. There are exceptions for connecting flights as well as flights to the French Mediterranean island of Corsica and French overseas territories.
All other domestic and intra-European flights will have a levy of €1.50, according to the Minister for Economy Class Tickets. The environmental tax for a business-class ticket will be €9.00. Tickets to destinations outside Europe will be taxed at €3.00 in economy class and €18.00 euros in business class, Borne also explained. The state wants to collect up to €182 million annually. The money would then be invested in more-environmentally friendly infrastructures, in particular the rail system.
The pressure on airline shares increased with the news. Lufthansa shares fell by 2.7 percent to €14.81 . The shares of other airlines such as Air France-KLM, IAG, Ryanair and EasyJet also fell on Tuesday afternoon. (€1.00 = US$1.12 at time of publication.)
