As of: January 30, 2024, 6:48 a.m
By: Natascha Heidenreich
Comments
Press
Split
Flights to summer vacation are becoming more expensive: The federal government wants to increase taxes on airline tickets.
Passengers will have to prepare for higher prices from May 1st.
Kassel – No matter whether Greece, Turkey or Spain: Germans like to dig a little deeper into their pockets for their vacation.
From May of this year, this price will increase significantly.
Consumers have to expect more expensive airline tickets.
If you want to travel by plane this summer, you should hurry up when booking your tickets.
It has long been apparent that flight prices will rise, reports the
Handelsblatt
.
After the plan for the so-called kerosene tax was rejected, the ticket tax for flights will now increase by 19 percent on May 1, 2024.
The federal government hopes to raise around 580 million euros to finance the budget deficit.
Air ticket tax is actually supposed to affect airlines: but they can pass it on
The plan that the federal government has drawn up will probably also have a noticeable impact in other areas of life.
Although, according to Ampel, the increased costs of airline ticket taxes should be borne by the airlines, it is likely that they will pass the costs on to consumers.
When planning your summer vacation, this means: Anyone who books a flight after May 1, 2024 will pay the increased flight ticket tax.
From May 1st, airline ticket prices will increase.
© stock&people/imago
However, airline tickets are paid for in advance.
As the
Handelsblatt
suspects, this is exactly why no airline informs its passengers about the flight ticket tax in advance.
So anyone who books now will pay the current tax, not the future tax.
Tax rate is over 70 euros: who is not affected
As can be seen from Section 11 of the Air Traffic Tax Act, a flight within Europe currently costs 13.03 euros.
This tax rate is set to change from May 1st.
From May 2024, individual passengers will be charged 15.53 euros for intra-European flights.
Just under 2.50 euros doesn't seem that high.
At medium distances of up to 6,000 kilometers the increase becomes more noticeable.
Instead of 33.01 euros, 39.34 euros per passenger must be paid.
The tax rate for long-distance flights was previously 59.43 euros.
In a few months the tax rate for flights to Australia, for example, will be 70.83 euros.
According to Section 4 of the Air Traffic Tax Act, the tax only arises when the passenger departs from a domestic departure point.
Passengers under the age of two do not have to pay air traffic tax if they do not have their own seat.
Passengers whose flight only serves military or other sovereign purposes are also exempt from the law.
(
nhf
)