After Ryanair demand

12 per passenger: the front against the tax is growing

The aviation tax is also a thorn in the side of Julian Jäger (left) and Norbert Draskovits (right).(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Markus Wenzel (2), APA/Austrian Airlines)

Ryanair would be willing to grow and would also further expand its flight offering, but the air traffic tax of 12 euros per passenger must first be abolished - this is the demand that Laudamotion CEO Andreas Gruber has repeated time and again recently. Now the Ryanair spokesman has received prominent support for his demand.

Since October 28, Ryanair has been connecting Linz with London-Stansted twice a week, with Bari (Italy) and Alicante (Spain) to be added in spring 2025 - making the Irish low-cost airline an important player at Hörsching Airport.

Tax is "harmful"
Andreas Gruber also took the opportunity to make a clear statement to politicians on the occasion of the resumption of the London connection. His demand: the air traffic tax of 12 euros per passenger should be abolished! The tax is "harmful", emphasized Gruber. If it were abolished, Ryanair would expand its range of flights in Austria enormously, he says.

The 12-euro tax per passenger is not only a pain in the neck for the Ryanair spokesperson, Gruber has also received support from airport bosses. "The European trend has changed. Countries such as Sweden are even abolishing their taxes in this regard in order to give aviation a further boost," says Julian Jäger, Member of the Executive Board of Vienna Airport and President of the Austrian Airports Association.

"Not just an issue for low-cost airlines"
Norbert Draskovits, CEO of Linz Airport and currently also Vice President of the Austrian Airports Association, adds: "The tax burden is not just an issue for low-cost airlines. It is also a major issue for everyone else."

The air traffic tax was introduced in Austria in 2011 as part of a budget review, after the Germans had introduced similar structures two months earlier.

Norbert Draskovits, Geschäftsführer des Flughafen Linz und Vizepräsident der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Österreichischer Verkehrsflughäfen

Jäger continues: "In Saudi Arabia, India, China and South America, aviation is extremely well supported. A lot is being invested there because they see that aviation is a source of prosperity. I think that as Europe and as an economic nation, we have to fight hard to maintain the prosperity that we have achieved."

What if the 12-euro tax is not dropped? "Then we would at least have an earmarking of the money for the decarbonization of aviation," says Jäger.