Let's stick to the example of a single, economy class flight from Basel to Berlin (Schönefeld) for 31.20 francs. The flight covers a distance of 690 km. Assuming an average fuel consumption of 5.52 litres per person per 100 km, as estimated by the German aviation authority, that gives us a fuel consumption of approx. 38 litres per person. Based on the fuel tax on domestic flights of 0.74 Fr/l, a surcharge of 27.90 francs would then be added to the airfare.

For the CO 2 tax, we’ll use the values of the Federal Office for the Environment and the CO 2 Act as guidelines and apply 96 Fr/ton CO 2 . The CO 2 emission of the flight in question can be estimated at 0.18 tons (see above), for all types of aircraft and load factors. The CO 2 surcharge is therefore 17.20 francs, which gives us a total airfare of 76.30 francs.

Then VAT at 7.7% would have to be applied to this amount – an additional 5.90 francs, bringing the total price to 82.20 francs. And so the “new” airfare would be 2.6 times higher than the original one.1 If, say, a ticket charge were taken into account too, as is the case at some European airports, the factor would be even greater. So depending on the initial price, we could expect to pay a total of 2 to 7 times the current ticket price – and that’s a drastic increase!