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Press Release
Today car drivers, transport companies, bussing companies, railway companies have to bear a high load caused by high fuel prices and taxes. This makes one subvention to come into the view: the tax free fuel for domestic air traffic.
The hamburg airport neighbourship organization "Notgemeinschaft der Flughafenanlieger Hamburg" – the oldest organization for the protection against harmful effects of air traffic - now has written a letter to the german minister of finance Hans Eichel. The NG proposes in this letter to have equal taxes for domestic flight fuel as for car fuel.
Gebhard Kraft, president of the NG: „This privilegue costs today about far more than a half billion Deutschmarks. Car and train users have to pay high fuel and eco taxes, but the concurring air traffic uses kerosene tax free. Hard to understand, since the domestic air traffic is extreme harmful to environment: The fuel of a singel 500 km domestic flight would be enough for the same amount of passengers to drive in modern Volkswagen cars from Hamburg to the central africa. Domestic flights in germany mean 40 percent of all aircraft starts in germany, highly annoying a great number of people near the airports by aviation noise and pollution.“
NG has written to minister Eichel, that the specific climate damaging emissions (leading to the greenhouse effect) by domestic flights are more than ten times higher than the specific emissions of the tax burdened trains and busses. The tax free privilegue of flights gives a handicap to competing trains and busses. This privilegue stands in contradiction to the international plights of germany for climate protection..
„Stopping the tax privilegue for domestic flights, the federal governement of germany can show the will to bring short distance flights to the railways.“, adds Hans Saalfeld, vice president of the NG. Nobody could accept that trains are tax burdened whereas the domestic short distance flights are free of fuel and eco tax.
Equal taxes for domestic flights compared to ground traffic have no juridic problems. As well USA as Japan have taxes on their national kerosene use. The costs for the taxes are extremely low compared to other taxes. President Kraft: „Ending this privilegue is a good thing for all. Equal chances for competing traffic companies, more acceptance for eco tax, more environmental and climate protection, more mony for the state budget. A good financial base to decide on tax reduction for trains, busses, car drivers, farmers and domestic freight ships“
17. September 2000