New Swedish government abolishes ‘flyswatter’ flight tax

The new Swedish government, a right-wing minority government with tacit support from the radical-right Sweden Democrats, will abolish the ‘flyswatter’, or flight tax, introduced by the previous red-green government on July 1st next year.

“Sweden depends on competition in the airline industry,” says Sweden Democrats group chairman Linda Lindberg. “Companies and individuals need air travel, not least in Sweden itself.” Or how the term ‘flygskam’, or flight shame, a term the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg helped introduce, will take a big hit.

Price cut from €7 to €45

Scrapping the tax will reduce the cost of airline tickets by some 90 Swedish kronor (7.05 euros) for a domestic or intra-European flight and up to 325 and 517 Swedish kronor (or 28.63 and 45.34 euros) for a flight outside European borders.

The government assumes that scrapping the tax will lead to more air travel and, thus, higher greenhouse gas emissions. “But the latter is something we must look at in the future,” said Lindberg.

Aviation in Sweden already has extensive tax exemptions

The environmental organization Naturskyddsföreningen is critical of the decision to abolish the flight tax. “It will become even more difficult to achieve the climate goals. However, we are in an acute climate crisis and must reduce emissions quickly.”

Jonas Åkerman, a sustainability researcher at Stockholm University, also points out that even without the aviation tax, aviation in Sweden has had extensive tax exemptions. “We must remember that we don’t pay VAT on flights abroad. In purely socio-economic terms, those who do not fly pay for it through other taxes. Flight is already heavily subsidized before the air tax is abolished.”

Sweden’s airports and transportation industry are pleased with the abolished air tax. “It was a tax on travel, not on emissions,” says Marcus Dahlsten, CEO of Transportföretagen.

More CO2 emissions from aviation in the future?

Aviation represents about 2.5% of global CO2 emissions. That share will likely increase in the coming years as other polluters, such as the energy and the automobile sector, switch to greener alternatives. Estimates show that emissions from global flying can be as high as 22% of total emissions in 2050 if the sector fails to reverse the trend.

Several studies also point out that high-income countries, such as Sweden, generally need to cut air travel in half from pre-pandemic levels if emissions from the aviation sector are to decline at the rate required to meet climate goals.