The Ministry of the Economy is reportedly counting on a significant increase in a tax targeting the airline sector from next year in order to recover one billion euros for the presentation of the 2025 budget, according to several specialized French newspapers.
A rumor that is gaining momentum. On the sidelines of the general policy speech delivered by the new Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, this Tuesday, a rumor indicating the increase in a tax intended for the aeronautics sector in 2025 gained momentum in specialized newspapers in France.
According to Les Echos, Bercy is working on doubling the solidarity tax on plane tickets (TBSA) in order to recover a billion euros in the new budget, presented by the government in the coming days, for next year .
Initially introduced in France in 2006 by Jacques Chirac in order to finance the fight against AIDS, the TBSA gradually evolved to make it possible to obtain more varied financing by taxing air carriers via this means.
“It’s been a few days since we found out. The billion euros in additional taxes is concrete,” confirmed Pascal de Izaguirre, president of FNAM, representing the employers’ union in the airline sector, to Capital.
A tax that should more than double in one year
The idea, already mentioned by the former Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, should make it possible to double the revenue linked to this tax for Bercy in one year. For comparison, the latter would go from 460 million euros per year in 2024 to one billion euros in revenue next year.
This increase would represent for Transavia and Air France a direct hit of 280 million euros in 2025, while this sum was 140 million euros in 2024. However, this expense already represented nearly 30% of the total envelope paid by French airlines each year.
A direct impact on the prices of plane tickets
“Our French companies emerged very affected by the Covid period. We do not have the financial capacity to support a billion euros in additional taxes given our situation. The impact would necessarily be passed on to ticket prices,” concluded Pascal de Izaguirre.
In fact, this tax evolves gradually the longer the journey taken by plane. According to Les Echos’ calculation, the TBSA for each French airline could increase from 63 to 200 euros between 2024 and 2025 for a long-haul flight in business class. In the same vein, it would increase from 7.51 to 60 euros over the same period for a journey of more than 5,000 kilometers made in economy class.
