Sweden to remove flying fee in effort to boost ailing economy

Sweden is to abolish a ‘net zero’ tax on flying as it scrambles to boost its ailing economy

The country that coined the term “flight shame” will scrap aviation tax from July 2025 in a bid to reduce the cost of travel and stimulate business activity.

Energy and business minister Ebba Busch said the move was motivated by economic concerns.

She said:

“It is very important for large parts of Swedish enterprise to keep domestic airports, and a minority of European Union countries have aviation taxes, which makes it a competitive disadvantage.”

At a joint press conference with the prime minister, Linda Lindberg, of the Sweden Democrats, added:

“This will lead to lower prices for travellers and rising demand, boosting the competitiveness of airlines.”

Sweden’s economy shrank by 0.3 percent between April and July, according to official figures published last week. The country is still recovering from a recession last year when its economy contracted by 0.3 percent across 2023, and real incomes dropped.

The decision to axe the flight tax, which is expected to increase carbon dioxide emissions, is part of Stockholm’s 2025 budget bill, which will also include cash for infrastructure upgrades and tax relief for exports aimed at stimulating the economy.

The tax on flight tickets was first introduced by the then centre-Left government in 2018. At the time, former financial markets minister Per Bolund said the policy was part of “a shift toward green taxes where we raise taxes on emissions and cut taxes on labour”.

Travellers to and from Sweden are currently charged 76 krona (£5.60) per passenger.

The tax was introduced around the same time as the “flight shame” movement emerged, whereby climate campaigners called on the public to give up flying to cut down on emissions and ‘save the planet’.

The movement was born in Sweden, where it is known as “flygskam”, and climate activist Greta Thunberg helped to popularise it, famously sailing from Plymouth to New York in 2019 to speak at a climate conference at the UN.

Visits to Swedish airports fell by four percent in 2020, the year after Ms Thunberg’s trip, with officials blaming the flight shaming movement and the ticket tax for the decline.

Sweden’s first Right-wing government in eight years has pushed back against the anti-flying movement since winning power in 2022.

Infrastructure minister Andreas Carlson said there were “few reasons to feel flight shame” as he announced plans for the government to invest more than a billion krona (£76m) to support airlines in February.

The new administration’s stance has provoked the ire of climate activists.

The government was accused of “consciously increasing emissions” last year after it slashed funding for environmental measures by 259m krona and introduced tax cuts on diesel and petrol.

Daniel Kihlberg, climate director at the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, criticised the decision to scrap the flight tax. He told newspaper Aftonbladet on Tuesday:

“It’s completely upside down and the government is giving up completely on climate policy.”

Shares in Norwegian Air jumped by 6.4 percent in Oslo after the announcement.