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Comment by Schlaefer | Hacker News Reader

Who talks about jets or crews? This doesn't affect billionaires, but private and recreational use of mostly small propeller planes. Flying is expensive, but it isn't a privilege of "rich jerks". You want to make it a privilege for the elite, then go ahead and tax it to death.

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Small props use barely any fuel per nautical mile, the actual extra cost here for a recreational pilot is absolutely tiny. A large 4X4 has a slightly smaller tank than a Cessna 172 and has nowhere near the range.

The outrage is misdirected. We are talking about negligible increase in cost here for general aviation.

GA in the EU is definitely the preserve of the rich.

It's mostly government regulations that made it that way. Small deregulated aircraft are a lot more affordable.

It’s really not that expensive, especially in eastern european countries like Romania.

GA?

General Aviation - the category that encompasses private plane ownership.

Thank You. This makes a lot more sense. But I assume owner of recreational planes could be exempt and Private Jet, mostly for billionaires and business could still be taxed?

Or am I missing something?

I tried to find numbers. This seems to give some context [1]: Look at page 8 and 9 and compare flight hours vs fuel consumption of single engine planes vs turbo-jet.

So there's a gray area that can be addressed in the future. Same goes for "should business build consumer electronics in Asia and fly it in" or "build it locally". But that wont change overnight either.

Nonetheless the regulation is a start, and as with any regulation I don't expect it to be perfect on day one or in cynical, bad faith.

[1]: https://download.aopa.org/hr/Report_on_General_Aviation_Tren...

> [this affects] private and recreational use of mostly small propeller planes.

Private and recreational flying is explicitly exempted from the tax too. So I don't think it affects them.

> Private and recreational flying is explicitly exempted from the tax too. So I don't think it affects them.

That was my point. Most of the comments hammer down on "oh, the corrupt elite wants to cheaply fly to Davos", ignoring that flying - while a very expensive hobby - is an aspirational and achievable endeavor for many people including an attached industry and jobs.

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