From Sunday 1 April, flying in Sweden costs a little more. This is the effect of the new air travel tax, which officially came into force after months of debate. A small sacrifice asked of passengers in an attempt to reduce, at least in part, the enormous environmental impact of air traffic. And perhaps to raise greater awareness of an issue that is often underestimated by the general public.

How the air travel tax works

In practical terms, the new air transport tax is an additional charge applied to tickets for any flight departing from Swedish airports. The only exemptions are children under two years of age travelling in their parents' arms, crew members, passengers making a stopover without changing aircraft, and, under certain conditions, those in transit to catch a connecting flight. The amount ranges from a minimum of 60 kronor (€5.80) to a maximum of 400 (€39), depending on the destination.

"The aim of the tax is to minimise the carbon footprint of flights, following a sharp increase in air traffic." These are the words with which Isabella Lövin – spokesperson for the Green Party, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Climate and International Development Cooperation – explains the decision in an article in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter.

According to the Stockholm government, the air travel tax will result in a reduction of approximately 450,000–600,000 passengers per year and a 2 per cent drop in emissions.

Those in favour and those against

Swedish citizens, for now, seem on the whole well disposed towards the prospect of paying a few extra kronor to protect the environment. In a survey by the daily Dagens Nyheter, 53 per cent of them approved of the air travel tax.

Political forces, too, with very few exceptions, are showing a united front on climate. In February 2017, in open opposition to the positions of US President Donald Trump, who announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement, the Stockholm government announced a sweeping plan to completely eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. An ambitious law passed with broad consensus, involving seven of the eight political parties with parliamentary representation.

Only the Centre Party raised some controversy over the air travel tax, arguing that it would have been preferable to require aircraft to use biofuels in part.

Far more critical were the airlines, which must now decide whether to absorb the tax or, conversely, pass it on to the end customer. Sas, the Scandinavian carrier headquartered in Sweden, chose the latter option and, together with Norwegian Air, has expressed very harsh words about the measure.

How polluting is air travel

But are our weekend breaks and business trips really that polluting? To arrive at a considered answer – as an article in the Economist also reported in Italy by Internazionale reminds us – several factors must be taken into account.

On the one hand, it must be said that aircraft are far more efficient than in the past: research from the University of Michigan on domestic flights in the United States reveals that the average amount of energy consumed per kilometre per passenger plummeted by 74 per cent between 1970 and 2000. This is because aircraft have evolved technologically and fly fuller than they used to. It should be noted, however, that this unit of measurement is rather relative, since flights cover far greater distances than those typically covered by other means of transport, such as cars.

Furthermore, these advances are substantially cancelled out by a factor pointing in the opposite direction: we now fly more and more frequently. According to the United States Department of Transportation, more than 670 million people passed through American airports in 2002; in 2017, the figure exceeded 964 million. In our continent, the first European Commission report on the environmental impact of air traffic reveals that the number of flights increased by 80 per cent between 1990 and 2014 (with a further 45 per cent increase expected by 2035). Over the same period, CO2 emissions linked to civil aviation rose by 80 per cent and nitrogen oxide emissions doubled. According to estimates, both will continue to grow between now and 2035 by 43 and 45 per cent respectively.