Noise tax in Northwest Italy

From 1 January 2018 the aircraft noise tax (Iresa) was introduced in Piedmont, Italy, giving an economic value to the weight, equal to € 0.50 per ton. This was decided at the meeting of the regional commission – which involved Finance and Transport – of 25 October last.

The Conference of Regions, in 2012, had already approved a regional law proposal on the subject, but since then only Lazio and Campania had applied it: from January 1, 2018 it will also touch the Piedmont.

‘Those who pollute pay, must also apply to the airlines,’ said the chairman of the Regional Council’s Transport Commission, Nadia Conticelli, during the meeting of the commission of 25 October. ‘It is a principle that must be applied by all the Regions, it is not possible to create territorial disparities to the detriment of those who live in the airport areas and suffer the consequent environmental damage’.

No value is assigned to the sound class, although that would definitely encourage the use of less noisy vectors. The value of noise must be included in the calculation of the tax via the international indicator established by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization).

This tax will have little impact on individual companies, less than € 40 per flight, but it would still generate a revenue of € 1 million per year to be used as compensation for the adjacent areas of Caselle and San Maurizio and in actions to reduce noise to decrease.

Source: e Habitat (Italian website)