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mixins.searchInfo_searchTermRegister and pay air traffic tax

Register and pay air traffic tax

Source: Serviceportal Rheinland-Pfalz

If you, as an airline, transport passengers commercially from Germany, you must register and pay air traffic tax at the main customs office in Frankfurt am Main from March 1, 2026. Non-commercial passenger air traffic carried by private individuals and cargo flights are excluded from the tax. In principle, all departures with aircraft and rotorcraft from German airports are taxed. Tax debtors registered for air traffic tax, i.e. air transport companies or their tax agents, 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. This applies to other North and Central African, Arab and Central Asian countries

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. The tax rates for each distance class are 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. flights from and to domestic, Danish or Dutch North Sea islands. This is 20 percent of the normal tax rate and applies

  • if the islands are not connected to the mainland by a tide-independent road or rail link
  • if the point of departure or destination
    • on the mainland is no further than 100 kilometers as the crow flies from the coast or
    • is located on an inland, Danish or Dutch North Sea island

In some cases, departures may be exempt from air traffic tax, for example

  • if children are traveling who are younger than 2 years of age and do not occupy their own seat
  • new departures of passengers whose original flight was aborted
  • departures of flight crews

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