Submitted by Thomas Kolbe
Germany’s leading airline Lufthansa is closing its regional subsidiary CityLine, while low-cost carrier Ryanair is scaling back its Germany operations. Airport locations are under increasing pressure, with tens of thousands of jobs at stake. And how does politics respond to this veritable crisis? Naturally, with further levies.
In this case, it was the EU Commission that came forward with the proposal to extend the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) to international flights departing from Europe. Another new charge, wonderful. And this in the midst of the most severe recession since the post-war period.
The regulation could take effect from 1 January 2027, should the relevant institutions and national legislators adopt it. The motivation to push this process forward efficiently and with minimal bureaucracy is clearly present, as at least €11 billion, and possibly up to €13 billion, in tax revenue is at stake. What is rarely discussed: a small portion of this additional revenue is expected to remain in Brussels – another covert step by the EU Commission under Ursula von der Leyen toward fiscal autonomy.
From the perspective of Brussels and Berlin policymakers, there is a positive side effect: alongside the fiscal dimension, they would also move closer to their ideological goal of gradually immobilising European citizens – a key component of the economic “death agenda” of the Green Deal.
As a European taxpayer, one has become accustomed to absorbing such measures. Few now expect anything other than new taxes and increasingly granular regulation from the labyrinthine EU apparatus. Brussels no longer makes any secret of its shift toward implementing degrowth ideology through an unprecedented tax drive. This occurs at a time when hundreds of thousands in Germany alone lose their jobs every year – while politicians beyond the so-called firewall are thriving on taxation policy.
So far, media camouflage has worked: politics floods the public sphere with a pseudo-debate about relief for citizens, only to simultaneously increase the tax burden elsewhere. The best example is the so-called fuel discount – a temporary reduction of a levy financed by permanent increases elsewhere, as it is often phrased. It is perverse: politics now treats taxpayers’ money as self-evident, as mere disposable mass for the political class. This smells of feudalism and has little to do with the idea of the sovereign citizen.
Consequently, travel itself is increasingly seen in these circles as objectionable, as an act of presumptuous freedom. The citizen’s scope for action must be restricted, their existence in an eco-dystopia effectively managed. It is therefore logical that travel is to become significantly more expensive. An extension of the CO₂ regime to international flight tickets would increase prices by up to 15 percent in the first year. Combined with annual price increases due to the shrinking supply of CO₂ certificates, foreign travel would soon become a luxury.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary is one of the few well-known executives openly resisting European degrowth policy. His company has reduced its presence in Germany by around 40–50 percent in recent years and cut numerous routes – affecting airports such as Frankfurt-Hahn, Weeze, Berlin, and Hamburg. Too expensive, too heavily regulated, and increasingly hostile to business – O’Leary is saying what virtually every company leader, CEO, and SME operator not dependent on green subsidies would say daily.
German policy in particular extracts a significant share of domestic air travel costs, up to around 60 percent of ticket prices. Whether VAT, CO₂ charges, or airport fees – operations are becoming increasingly unprofitable, and passengers are being pushed toward rail as an alternative. This policy has consequences: since the lockdown shock six years ago, domestic air traffic has not recovered and remains about 50 percent below 2019 levels. Numerous airport locations have come under pressure and thousands of jobs have been cut.
It is difficult to estimate precisely, but direct and indirect job losses in Germany’s aviation sector since 2019 likely amount to up to 50,000 positions. Lufthansa alone has cut more than 10,000, Airbus over 5,000 jobs in Germany.
The campaign by German policymakers against successful airlines like Ryanair, which are being systematically pushed abroad, fits into the broader pattern of the current governing coalition. A hostile, ideologically charged regulatory and tax policy is a continuation of the strategy of the “traffic light” coalition, intensified by the economic hammer of CO₂ taxation, increasingly used to eliminate undesirable industrial sectors.
We should not fool ourselves: the relentless struggle of eco-socialists against the free economy – and thus above all against industry, which must be understood as the indispensable productive foundation of our society – is now becoming visible, as EU climate policy becomes increasingly isolated globally.
Ironically, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) itself has dismantled the apocalyptic narrative of a burning planet that was persistently constructed over decades. This renders Brussels’ and Berlin’s nihilistic climate policy absurd – a fact largely drowned out in the overheated media noise. In the “Gaulish village” of German world-savers, an intellectual and ideological ice age still prevails.
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About the author: Thomas Kolbe, a German graduate economist, has worked for over 25 years as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.