{"id":46764,"date":"2023-07-20T08:53:03","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T06:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/?p=46764"},"modified":"2023-07-20T08:58:43","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T06:58:43","slug":"the-shocking-extent-people-are-encouraged-to-fly-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/issues\/climate-energy\/46764\/the-shocking-extent-people-are-encouraged-to-fly-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"The shocking extent people are encouraged to fly in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Brussels, 20 July 2023<\/strong> \u2013 As Europe braces for record-breaking temperatures, a new study<\/a> by Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe reveals the shocking extent to which people in Europe are being perversely encouraged to fly rather than take the train. Policies at the EU and national levels have created an unfair competitive advantage for climate-wrecking airlines, the report finds. <\/p>\n\n

The report compares the costs of flight and train tickets on 112 routes in Europe at 9 different points in time. Tickets for trains are on average twice as expensive as for flights, according to the report. On the London-Barcelona route, the cost of taking the train is up to 30 times as much as the cost of a flight.<\/p>\n\n

Flying can be more than 80 times worse for the climate than taking the train<\/a>. Despite this, airlines are exempt from paying tax on kerosene, a petroleum product which is the main ingredient in jet fuel. Transport & Environment recently estimated<\/a> that taxpayers in Europe lose out on a total of \u20ac34 billion a year thanks to this and other tax exemptions. Railways have no equivalent exemptions for any energy that they consume. A plan to revise the kerosene tax exemption for airlines has stalled at the EU level. <\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace EU senior climate campaigner Lorelei Limousin <\/strong>said: \u201cAirlines benefit from outrageous fiscal advantages. Planes pollute far more than trains, so why are people being encouraged to fly? Low-cost airlines, in particular, have exploited every loophole and trick in the book. \u20ac10 airline tickets are only possible because others, like workers and taxpayers, pay the true cost. For the planet and people\u2019s sake, politicians must act to turn this situation around and make taking the train the more affordable option, or else we\u2019re only going to see more and more heatwaves like the one currently wreaking total havoc in Spain, Italy, Greece and elsewhere.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n

Key facts and findings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n