Tax payers. In Germany, airplane fuel is not taxed.
See this Greenpeace study (in German) about how much cheaper flying is than train rides and why:
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/regional/nordrheinwestfalen....
See this Greenpeace study (in German) about how much cheaper flying is than train rides and why:
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/regional/nordrheinwestfalen....
So exempting tax (equivalently not charging for externalities) is indeed a subsidy, a transfer of wealth from government (and so society) to the airline operators.