(AOF) – ACI Europe, which represents European airport managers, today asked the French government to reconsider its plan to introduce an additional tax on revenues from the airports of Paris, Nice, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse. Proposed as part of the 2024 finance law, this tax “would reduce the capacity of these airports to finance their ambitious decarbonization plans”, which aim to achieve a level of zero net CO2 emissions between 2026 and 2030.
For ACI Europe, it also risks having an impact on their competitive position and connectivity, which would have “negative repercussions on the local economy”.
Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe, believes that this new initiative “would harm both decarbonization efforts and the economy” and that it “is akin to a policy of greenwashing”. “To reach level zero in the aviation sector in Europe will require more than 820 million euros of investment across the entire eco-system including manufacturers, airlines, airports and service providers”, he specifies, judging that “taxing the sector more will only make these investments more difficult and threaten our common objectives”.
The government announced in the press kit of the finance bill published on Wednesday the creation of a “tax on large operations of long-distance transport infrastructure”, specifying that its expected annual yield is 0.6 billion euros “distributed mainly between the large motorway concessions and the large aerodromes”. “Financing the ecological transition requires ensuring the consistency of our taxation with our environmental objectives,” underlines the executive.
The new tax was denounced by the managers ADP, Vinci and Eiffage.