Germany: Abolishing air travel tax would boost economy, PwC study finds

Abolishing Germany’s air passenger tax would boost the country’s economy by E67b in total over the next 12 years, a study by consultancy PwC showed on Monday. The report, commissioned by aviation lobby group A4E, said that scrapping the tax would make Germany a more attractive travel destination, generating E1.08b a year via indirect taxes, more than making up for the lost revenues. Germany introduced an air passenger tax in 2011 to raise about E1b a year, as part of tens of billions of euros of budget measures amid the global financial crisis. “Removing all air passenger levies would add more than 24.6m passengers by 2020, with more than half being tourists,” A4E Managing Director Thomas Reynaert said. That would help create thousands of new jobs and raise Germany’s gross domestic product by E3.7b in 2018. That figure would rise to 6.9b a year by 2030, PwC said. German GDP totaled E3.1t in 2016. Germany is one of a number of European countries that charge an air travel tax, including Britain, France and Greece.<br/>