Aviation’s carbon footprint could be reduced by 11%, or some 16.4 million tonnes of emissions, if the EU were to end  jet fuel’s tax derogation (Pact of 1944!) , according to a leaked European Commission study.

Imposing a tax of €330 per thousand litres of kerosene could help address global warming, reduce noise pollution and raise €27 billion in revenues every year, a new study compiled by Dutch consultants CE Delft for the EU executive has revealed. The report, l found that ticket prices would increase by an average of 10% and aviation sector jobs would be cut by 11%, as a result. Aviation is currently taxed in different forms in Europe, from VAT on domestic flights to airport taxes, but fuel is exempt from levies thanks to an international agreement from 1944. Other countries do impose fuel taxes on domestic flights though, including Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Air travel supports 3.2 million EU jobs out of a total 194 million but the study insists that “its impact on overall employment within a member state […] would be close-to-zero”. “Changes in tax regimes must be carefully analysed especially because the role of aviation, a priority industry, varies by member states,” the authors warn. The study also looked into the flipside of the argument and investigated how scrapping all aviation taxes would affect the EU economy. They concluded that flights and sector jobs would increase by 4% and GDP would be boosted by 0.2%. However, the authors also found that passenger numbers and CO2 emissions would go up 4% as well, suggesting that more tax breaks are highly unlikely, given international commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Data from EU statistics body Eurostat said that one out of every six trips was made by airplane and that 82% of those 218 million journeys were non-business related.  The number of kilometres travelled by airplane in the EU, for example, has surged by 60% since 2005 and the upward trend is only expected to continue, according to a report earlier this year on aviation’s environmental impact.

The Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament has included a kerosene tax in its election manifesto and wants to spend the revenues on the continent’s train network, increasing services, shifting freight from road to rail and revitalising night trains. Belgian lawmaker Bart Staes said in a statement that “for the aviation sector, the whole of Europe is a kind of tax haven. The idea that a tax on aviation is harmful to the economy is clearly a fairy tale.” European railway association CER told EURACTIV that each form of transport should be responsible for the pollution it creates. Executive Director Libor Lochman said the revenues from such a tax should “be earmarked for sustainable mobility and public health” initiatives.

Aviation is currently taxed in different forms in Europe, from VAT on domestic flights to airport taxes, but fuel is exempt from levies thanks to an international agreement from 1944.