The Swedish government has announced that it will be setting higher take-off and landing fees for aircraft with high levels of pollution. Consequently, older, less fuel-efficient aircraft will be hit hardest by this new ‘tariff’. “This means that takeoff and landing fees can be more significant when a plane’s climate impact is higher and they can be reduced when the climate impact is lower,” the Ministry of Infrastructure said on Monday, March 22.
Though the proposal has yet to be approved by parliament and will involve Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport and Gothenburg’s Landvetter Airport, it will also take into account aircraft which use biofuel. The government has also confirmed that the scheme was not yet finalized and further fine-tuning will occur. The fees charged are likely to be the first of their type anywhere in the world, and Sweden has a reputation of coming down hard on pollution within the airline industry.
In 2018 the flygskam, or ‘flight-shame’ movement began, which has heaped considerable pressure on people to change their flying habits and consider rail travel instead. Swedish Railways is currently promoting the fact that one single flight between Sweden’s two largest cities, Stockholm and Gothenburg, will generate as much carbon dioxide as 40,000 train journeys between the two cities. Research also shows that compared to 1990, every Swede who traveled by air in 2017 was responsible for roughly 50% more carbon dioxide emissions at 1.1 tons.
