EFTA Surveillance Authority are determined that the exception that Norway has placed in the air passenger tax, is not in violation of the EEA rules on state aid.
ESA received a complaint against Norway from NHO Luftfart in June last year. The organization said the exception was an advantage for airlines that operates with multiple networks and has many destinations.
NHO Luftfart argued that airlines that require that passengers themselves provides connection tickets will suffer.
– ESA can not decide whether the air passenger tax is a good tax policy, but can only to consider whether it constitutes as illegal state aid. And it does not, says ESA President Sven Erik Svedman.
ESA assessed the exception of air passenger taxes before the complaint was received and notified the Norwegian authorities May last year that the agency did not find that any state aid was involved.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today