this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2025
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Europe

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[–] Alfredolin@sopuli.xyz 27 points 1 week ago

It is absolutely not OK that there still is a tax exemption on any flight whatsoever.

That and the shameless dynamic pricing of trains.

[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] JasSmith@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Flying receives far lower subsidies and infrastructure spending than rail. The EU subsidises air travel (including said avgas tax exemption) to the tune of around €30–40 billion annually depending on what you include and what you consider to be a “subsidy.” Using similar criteria, rail is subsidised to the tune of €40–75 billion per year. So rail gets a lot more investment despite it serving 16% fewer travel kilometers per year in the EU than air travel.

[–] Gsus4@programming.dev 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You've convinced me: rail should be subsidised more and air travel should get nothing (unless there is no equivalent train route e.g. across the sea) .

[–] trougnouf@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

"16% fewer travel kilometers", meaning trains are used massively more often since they typically don't cover nearly as many kilometers. People would probably chose to take the train more often even if it meant traveling to less distant destinations if the planes were more expensive.

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[–] comrade_twisty@feddit.org 20 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Hell, it’s cheaper and faster to fly from Zurich or Munich to Hamburg via Barcelona, London or Dublin.

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (4 children)
[–] br3d@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

Air travel is heavily subsidised, especially through very very very favourable tax rates on aviation fuel

[–] JasSmith@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

Rail is very expensive to build, operate, and maintain. Rail is far more heavily subsidised in Europe than air travel and it’s still more expensive. It also doesn’t respond well to changes in demand. Tracks can’t be easily moved. Flights can easily be redirected. As technology and efficiency improves, flights become cheaper every year. Not rail, however, because most of the cost of operation and maintenance has nothing to do with energy efficiency. This gap will continue to widen. Further, rail has an inherent logistical limitation: all cars share limited lines. They are all limited by the slowest car. They are all stopped when an issue occurs with another car (or tracks). Planes can fly around damage to the network.

[–] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 week ago

Direct flights between airports that don't serve as hubs for any airline are generally focused on business travel. If you fly via some airlines hub airport you can get cheaper tickets as the flights are more focused on stuffing as many people into a plane as possible.

I'm not sure it's like this everywhere, but many airlines are more focused on financial products (like credit cards) for profit than flights. Here's something about it, no guarantee of quality, but it's enough to get the general idea: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/airlines-banks-mileage-programs/675374/

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[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

That's really unfortunate.

[–] idefix@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago (6 children)

I'm just here to applaud the mods... (See the deleted comments/spam)

[–] detren@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

Oh god this looks like a massacre

[–] doingthestuff@lemy.lol 2 points 1 week ago

Removed by mod

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I wish it were easier to find actions on specific posts in some instances. Piefed even harder to use from my experience so far.

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[–] goldenquetzal@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Those price discrepancies are genuinely shocking

[–] plyth@feddit.org 1 points 1 week ago

It'a apples to oranges. Pricing policies are different. Only few get the cheapest airline tickets.

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