Benjamin Smith came out of his reserve to warn of the announced increase in the solidarity tax on plane tickets (TSBA) and its consequences on the company, which is structurally losing market share compared to its foreign rivals .
Benjamin Smith, April 12, 2023, in Amsterdam (AFP / LUDOVIC MARIN)
“A new tax was already introduced last year. France would become the country where air transport is taxed the most in Europe!” In an interview with Le Parisien, the general director of Air France-KLM, Benjamin Smith, slammed the executive's “irresponsible” plan to consider increasing the tax on plane tickets.
“It’s irresponsible,” he said in an interview with the national news daily, regarding the government’s desire, in search of funds to limit the budget deficit, to increase taxes on air transport. The CEO of the company deplores
“France would become the country where air transport is taxed the most in Europe”,
he said in the newspaper's edition dated Monday, January 20. “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.
Could the France destination suffer?
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 lost 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 a
“access tax to France”.
