On Thursday, 6 February, the European Commission approved, under EU State Aid rules, budget increases for two existing German aid schemes supporting respectively the reduction and exemption from air travel tax applicable to flights to and from small islands in Germany.
The amendments consist of a budgetary increase of €150,000 to finance an air travel tax exemption for people living in small inland islands and a €1 million increase intended to finance an 80% reduction of the air travel tax applicable to all other passengers travelling to and from these islands.
As of April 2020, Germany will increase the air transport tax in order to encourage passengers to consider other, less polluting modes of transport. However, the aim of ensuring the connectivity of the islands remains. Consequently, in order to maintain the travel tax exemption and travel tax reduction for flights to and from the small islands, the budget of each scheme will be increased in order to maintain the effect of the general air transport tax increase.
The Commission considered the tax exemption for the islands’ residents to be in line with the 2014 Aviation Guidelines. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)