This is hardly a surprise. An investigation by France's civil aviation authorities (DGAC) has taken stock of a year of increase in the solidarity tax on airline tickets (TSBA). And the results are distressing for French air transport.
The increase, which came into force in March 2025, means that France is now one of the European countries with the highest tax burden on air travel, alongside the United Kingdom and Ireland.GermanyThe Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Denmark. The UK is the all-round champion, except on European routes in economy class, where Dutch and German taxes are the highest.
The reform has resulted in an increase of €4.77 on an economy class ticket for intra-European flights in France, including domestic flights, and up to €120 for a long-haul ticket of more than 5,500 kilometres in business class.
France is one of the countries with the highest taxes on air transport
In Europe (economy class), France ranks 4th in terms of taxes, behind the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. In international medium-haul economy class, France ranks 6th (total TSBA and TAC equivalent to €24.25) behind the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway. Lastly, on long-haul in economy class, France is in third place (€49.25 in total) behind the United Kingdom and Germany.
Revenue from the TSBA is estimated at around €1.3 billion in a full year. Of this, 20 % is allocated to the Agence de financement des infrastructures de transport de France (AFITF), in particular for road and rail projects, while 80 % goes to the general State budget. If all the taxes linked to air transport are added together, public revenue should exceed €3 billion by 2025.
Business aviation has been particularly hard hit, with increases ranging from €207 to over €2,000 per passenger. This tax increase has largely been passed on to ticket prices, contributing up to two additional points of inflation in air transport, even though overall inflation remains relatively contained in France.
The fare increases have been more noticeable on routes within mainland France, where traffic has been declining since 2023 as a result of economic, social, political and environmental factors. Long-haul flights, including to the French overseas territories, have been relatively less affected.
Less competitive airports
The rise in the TSBA has also led to an increase in so-called "touchdown" costs, i.e. the services billed to airlines for landing, parking, taxiing and passenger boarding. These costs are an important factor in airline location decisions and influence the choice of routes operated.
As a result, the competitiveness of French airports has deteriorated, both on the medium-haul network vis-à-vis competing European hubs and on the long-haul network vis-à-vis the major international hubs. Regional airports have been particularly penalised, according to the DGAC. Costs for these airports are now on average 42 % higher than the European average, compared with only 12 % in 2023, a development largely attributed to the increase in the TSBA. These hubs depend to a large extent on low-cost airlines, which are particularly sensitive to differences in charges.
When Ryanair and easyJet trim back
It is in this segment that we are seeing a sharp deterioration. Admittedly, in the second quarter of 2025, growth in seat capacity from France stood at 1.5%. But this was well below the growth seen in the rest of Europe, with growth of almost 4.5 %. This gap concerns domestic flights as well as European and international routes. However, this sluggish growth occurred in a post-Olympic context where a rebound in international tourism was expected. With around 22.8 million seats offered during the summer of 2025, France ranked sixth in Europe for overall seat capacity. It was overtaken by Italy.
Several carriers, including Air France, easyJet and Ryanair, have adapted their commercial strategy accordingly, notably by reducing capacity for low-cost carriers.
Ryanair's seat capacity fell by 7.9% in the second quarter and 8.3% in the third quarter. At Easyjet, the falls were 7.5% and 5.1% respectively. By contrast, the low-cost carriers Wizz Air and Transavia posted growth. As for traditional airlines such as Air France, Lufthansa and Iberia, the DGAC reports a decline, even a contraction, in seat capacity. However, it does not quantify this in figures.
In commercial business aviation, the situation is also mixed: while the total number of movements remained stable in the third quarter of 2025, activity under the French flag fell by 21.8 %, while foreign operators grew by 4 %, illustrating a transfer of activity to the detriment of domestic players.
The Lecornu government's renewal of the TSBA at its current level for the 2026 budget should therefore result in a further slowdown in aviation activity in France, or even an acceleration of this downward spiral.
