Business travellers in France may experience disruption to flights on Thursday (14 November) as the country’s air transport unions are calling for protests and strike action against the government’s proposed threefold increase to civil aviation tax.
Unions representing pilots, flight attendants and civil aviation have collectively called on their members to "demonstrate together” in Paris on Thursday in opposition to “this unfair tax that is deadly for their jobs”.
As well as a protest movement, the SNPL union, which represents 75 per cent of French pilots, has called for a 24-hour work stoppage on Thursday, which will affect scheduled flights across the country, according to local media reports.
The trade organisations are jointly opposed to the newly-elected government’s proposed increase to its levy on flights in and out of France – also known as the ‘solidarity’ tax – in an attempt to reduce the country’s debt.
The proposal will see the tax on economy tickets for domestic and intra-Europe flights increase from €2.60 per passenger to €9.50. For medium-haul routes, the tax will double from €7.50 to €15 per passenger in economy or premium, and from €20.27 to €30 for travellers in business class.
Long-haul routes will be the hardest hit, with the proposal suggesting an increase from €7.40 to €40 per passenger in economy or premium, and from €63.07 to €120 for business travellers.
Air France and KLM have stated they will pass the increase on to passengers, with the tax hikes already added to tickets sold for travel from 1 January 2025.
In a statement, the airlines said: “Having to pay an uncollected tax to the French government would represent a loss of several tens of millions of euros... to avoid this situation, on 24 October 2024 the Air France KLM Group decided to pass on this increase in advance on tickets sold for travel from 1 January 2025, without waiting for the final finance bill to be passed.”
It continued: “In the event of a change to the scale, or if the amendment is abandoned or rejected, the Group's airlines will make adjustments to ensure that the amount collected is equal to the amount actually due in respect of the airline ticket solidarity tax.”
Aviation trade unions, meanwhile, believe the resulting fare increases “would be catastrophic for the French aviation sector”.
The SNPL union, in a statement, said: “Today, and while many players in the aviation sector are barely recovering from the prolonged effects of the Covid-19 crisis period, this additional tax will ultimately lead to tens of thousands of job losses in France.
“This social disaster will go hand in hand with the weakening of French operators or those operating regularly in France vis-à-vis their European and international competitors, with in addition a real risk of a reduction in the economic and tourist attractiveness of our country.”