Swiss Senate rejects tax on short-haul flights

No tax on short-haul flights Keystone-SDA

The Swiss Senate does not want a tax on short-haul flights. On Wednesday, it voted 20 to 17 against taking forward an initiative from the canton of Basel-City to that effect.

While temperatures soared this summer, the country’s airports also reported record passenger numbers in July, noted parliamentarian Maya Graf from the Green party.

She added that air traffic causes noise pollution for local residents. In the densely populated Basel metropolitan area, many people are affected on a daily basis by Basel-Mulhouse Airport. However, some of these flights bring no significant added value to the region’s economy, tourism or leisure sector. An incentive tax on airline tickets for short-haul flights would help reduce unnecessary flights.

The cantonal initiative proposed defining the routes concerned on the basis of whether destinations were reasonably accessible by rail, rather than on the basis of a fixed number of kilometres.

Speaking on behalf of the committee, Severin Brüngger from the Radical Liberal party expressed doubts about the measure’s effectiveness. Passengers would simply be likely to switch to airports in neighbouring countries, in particular Basel-Mulhouse Airport (EuroAirport). What is needed instead are measures coordinated at the international level.

Admittedly, international coordination is needed for kerosene taxation, but using this argument to oppose Swiss measures does not hold water. France has banned short-haul flights and Belgium has introduced a tax on flights of less than 500 km. This shows that it is possible for a country to take action, countered Eva Herzog from the Social Democratic party, to no avail.

The House has yet to give its verdict.

The senators subsequently rejected a petition calling for a ban on private jets in Switzerland.

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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.