[Reason077]

1. International airlines pay no tax on aviation fuel, despite their significant contribution to air pollution and climate change. In say, Europe, this represents a huge subsidy compared to ground transport, where fuel is heavily taxed.

2. Airports, particularly regional ones, are often owned by local governments and receive subsidies in order to encourage tourism and commerce in their region. In some cases, airlines receive direct subsidies from those airports in order to fly there.

3. Internationally, some airlines themselves are state-owned or state-subsidised. Gulf airlines such as Emirates and Qatar have been criticised for being significant beneficiaries of state subsidies.

This isn’t to say that rail isn’t subsidised too, of course. Even in countries where rail operates on a commercial basis, the physical infrastructure is usually government owned or financed in some way.

However, if airlines had to account for (and pay for) their environmental externalities, the costs of airline vs rail travel would work out very differently!

[ant6n]

Not just fuel taxes, also sale taxes. Plane tickets 0, train tickets 20%.

[Reason077]

Here in the UK, train tickets are also 0 VAT, whether domestic or international.

I expect that would also apply to international train tickets anywhere in the world. Policies on domestic tickets may vary.

[iguy]

> compared to ground transport, where fuel is heavily taxed

But isn't this basically a road tax? Fuel for agricultural machinery or industrial plants is also free of such taxes (typically).