The boss of Air France-KLM believes that increasing the tax on plane tickets would be “irresponsible”

Air France-KLM boss Benjamin Smith believes that increasing the tax on plane tickets would be “irresponsible”, a few days after the announcement of the government's plan on this subject.

The general director of Air France-KLM, Benjamin Smith, considers it “irresponsible” to consider increasing the tax on plane tickets, which, according to him, would make France “the country where air transport is the most taxed in Europe.

“It’s irresponsible,” he declared to Le Parisien who questioned him about the desire of the government, in search of funds to limit the budget deficit, to increase taxes on air transport.

“A new tax was already introduced last year. France would become the country where air transport is taxed the most in Europe,” he said in Monday's edition of the newspaper.

The airline sector worried

“If an increase in the tax were to be confirmed, which I certainly do not want, we ask that it be, at least, directed towards the decarbonization of the aviation sector,” he added.

The airline sector federations had already reacted last Monday, calling on the government to revise its tax project and demanding consultation.

The new Minister of Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin, had affirmed the previous week that she was in favor of an increase in the solidarity tax on plane tickets (TSBA) to contribute to reducing the public deficit.

Michel Barnier's government had already proposed in its 2025 draft budget a tripling of this tax and an increase in the taxation of private jet passengers, for a total of one billion euros, provoking the ire of the sector which had urges the new government to start from the “more balanced” project adopted in November by the Senate.

But Amélie de Montchalin decided to keep the increase in the TSBA on the agenda, arguing that it was a “measure of fiscal and ecological justice”. Benjamin Smith warned of an increase which will weigh on travelers and the destination France.

“For 20 years, we have been losing 1 to 2% of market share per year to the benefit of foreign companies. The risk is to move the value that our traffic generates to other countries,” he said, referring to an “access tax to France”.