The new air tax will ultimately be limited to the largest airports

2023-09-26 19:16:08

Published on September 26, 2023 at 6:13 p.m. Updated on September 26, 2023 at 7:16 p.m.

If air transport narrowly avoids the double penalty, the increase in taxation planned in the 2024 draft budget remains no less steep. According to our information, the government has certainly given up on increasing the “eco-contribution” levied on all plane tickets since 2019. But on the other hand, it intends to levy an additional tax on airports from next year, for an amount of at least 500 million euros over four years.

Representatives of the airports concerned received confirmation of this on the eve of the presentation of the 2024 finance bill, this Wednesday. This new tax, born from the government’s desire to tax motorway concessionaires more, will apply from next year to the main airport concessionaires, as well as to the ADP group, although the latter is not under the concession regime.

The biggest will pay

However, not all airports will be affected. In order to limit protests from local authorities, which still manage a certain number of regional airports, the project plans to limit the application of this new tax to airports whose annual turnover, excluding airport tax, exceeds 120 million euros and whose margin reaches at least 10%.

So that in the end, the “chosen ones” will be few in number. The list could ultimately be limited to Paris airports, as well as those of Lyon, Marseille and Nice. The ADP group, of which the State remains the main shareholder, should generate, on its own, more than half of the expected revenue. That is more than 250 million euros out of a total amount of 500 million from 2024 to 2027, supposed to go to the rehabilitation of the rail network.

When contacted, the Union of French Airports said it was waiting for the text before issuing an opinion. However, the association does not rule out taking legal action, like the highway concessionaires, who had also threatened the State with legal action against this measure.