If you, as an airline, transport passengers commercially from Germany, you must pay air traffic tax. Non-commercial passenger flights carried by private individuals and cargo flights are excluded from the tax.

In principle, all departures with airplanes and rotorcraft from German airports are taxed. Tax debtors registered for air traffic tax, i.e. air transport companies or their tax representatives, must submit a monthly tax return.

If you are not registered for the tax, you are obliged to submit the tax declaration immediately for each departure and pay the tax immediately.

The air traffic tax is calculated per passenger according to the distance to the destination and is divided into 3 distance classes.

• Distance class 1 includes Destinations within Germany,
• Destinations in member states of the European Union (EU),
• Destinations in countries that are candidates for EU membership,
• Destinations in member states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and third countries within this distance range (in particular Turkey, Russia, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, United Kingdom).

Distance class 2 includes:

• Countries that do not fall into distance class 1 up to a distance of 6,000 kilometers (other North and Central African states, Arab states, Central Asian states).

Distance class 3

• includes all other destinations that are not covered by distance classes 1 or 2.

A complete list of countries belonging to distance classes 1 and 2 can be found in Annexes 1 and 2 of the Air Transport Tax Act. From 2025, the tax rates will be reduced as a percentage with effect from the following calendar year if the air traffic tax revenue in the previous year exceeds the amount of EUR 2.33 billion.

A reduced tax rate applies to so-called island flights, i.e. departures from and to domestic, Danish or Dutch North Sea islands. This is 20 percent of the standard tax rate and applies if the islands are not connected to the mainland by a tide-independent road or rail link and if the point of departure or destination on the mainland is not more than 100 kilometers away.

• on the mainland is no further than 100 kilometers as the crow flies from the coast or
• is located on another inland, Danish or Dutch North Sea island.

In some cases, departures may be exempt from air traffic tax. You can find out when the exemption applies on the Customs website.