Swiss politicians reject tax on certain private and business jet flights

Private jets at Geneva Airport Keystone / Martial Trezzini

Flights by private and business jets weighing 5.7 tonnes or more will not be taxed in Switzerland. By 108 votes to 87, the House of Representatives refused to introduce this new tax into the CO2 Law – to the dismay of the political left and the Centre Party.

The tax would amount to between CHF500 ($580) and CHF3,000 per flight, which would be allocated to climate protection measures, explained Delphine Klopfenstein Broggini from the Green Party on behalf of the committee. The aim is to ensure that additional financial resources are available to meet the ambitious targets.

Matthias Samuel Jauslin from the Liberal Green Party recalled that this idea had been rejected by voters in the 2021 referendum. “We have to ask ourselves whether it is legitimate and correct to present it again.” He pointed out that business aviation is important in certain regions, citing Sion and Lugano airports.

+ Switzerland is a paradise for private jets, says report

Environment Minister Albert Rösti added that the industry had already made a commitment in a declaration of intent to offset emissions voluntarily and to use synthetic fuels. The Senate also rejected such a measure in September.

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here. 

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].