French business aviation tax rise pushes operators abroad

France raised its solidarity tax on airline tickets, the TSBA, on 1 March 2025. The rise was moderate for scheduled airline traffic but far steeper for business aviation: 207.37 to 2,097.37 euros per passenger, according to a November 2025 study by the French civil aviation authority, the DGAC.

Charles Aguettant, head of the industry association EBAA France, told the newspaper Journal du Dimanche shortly afterwards that the levy had multiplied by a factor of 700. France could lose its appeal for business travellers, he warned.

That warning has partly come true, according to the annual report of the general rapporteur of the National Assembly's finance committee, presented on 23 September. The report examines how taxes from recent budget laws have worked in practice. Traffic handled by French business aviation providers has fallen noticeably in every quarter since the increase, and in year-on-year terms the decline was the sharpest of any category.

The activity has not disappeared. It has shifted to foreign competitors, and the expected tax revenue has moved with it. France remains one of Europe's largest markets for business aviation. Eurocontrol data for the first half of 2025 put Paris-Le Bourget at the top of the continent's business aviation airports with an average of 73.8 departures a day, ahead of Nice with 46.8.

The tax, like Germany's air traffic levy, is charged per passenger departing from a French airport.