Vienna Airport Welcomes National Council Decision to Reduce the Air Transport Levy

On March 29th, 2017 the National Council of Austria agreed on the bisection of the Air Tranport Levy as of 1st January, 2018. The current scheme will be changed to the following:

• Short haul pursuant to Annex 1 FlugAbgG: from EUR 7 to EUR 3.5
• Medium haul pursuant to Annex 2 FlugAbgG: from EUR 15 to EUR 7.5
• Long haul: from EUR 35 to EUR 17.5

 
Flughafen Wien AG welcomes the decision of the National Council of Austria’s Parliament to reduce the air transport levy by half. “The approved decrease in the ‘ticket tax’ supports efforts to strengthen the Austrian business location, above all tourism. We will take all possible measures enabling this impetus to growth to ultimately help generate higher revenue for the government and more than compensate for the lower proceeds from the air transport levy. This move is also an important signal for the airlines, which were very restrained in their investment activity as a consequence of the air transport levy. In this respect, the reduction is an invitation to the airlines to invest in Austria”, say Günther Ofner and Julian Jäger, Members of the Management Board of Flughafen Wien AG. “The complete elimination of the air transport levy would be desirable from a socio-political perspective. It would help lower-income segments of the population to afford flights abroad, which in turn would have a positive impact on levelling out social inequality”, they add.