Why should there be 0% VAT on international aviation fuel?

There is an international treaty that prohibits tax on fuel for international flights. However, there is nothing preventing any state in implementing other taxes, e.g. departure / arrival taxes, steep airport charges, aircraft registration taxes, etc.

The should of course be carbon taxes, etc.

Article 14 (b) exempts any fuels used for commercial aviation from Excise duties, but it does include a provision that allows a member state to restrict this exemption to Jet fuel only (i.e. Jet Kerosene).

Given the carbon tax on transport fuels is typically deemed to be another element Excise duty, it means that Ireland would likely be challenged through the EU Courts if we tried to bring in carbon tax on jet fuel.

VAT on aviation fuels is covered by the EU VAT Directive, Article 148(e), which grants a general exemption to "the supply of goods for the fuelling and provisioning of aircraft used by airlines operating for reward chiefly on international routes"

The EU is currently looking at making changes to these rules via the "Taxonomy" processes - but it's been very slow.

Ultimately, Ireland can't place excise or VAT directly on jet fuel without EU-level changes. And we cannot place VAT on international air travel in general without an EU change also. It doesn't however, stop us placing passenger-level taxes on departures or arrivals to try and get the same impact.

The EU is working to change it - but when it comes to changing the tax directives the EU always works incredibly slowly.

They've other carbon measures already in though - ETS applied to the aviation section since 2019

The EU exemptions have zero reference to the Chicago Convention - it's a separate EU-level decision that was originally driven, as I understand it, but the desire to promote free movement within the union. There's a similar EU exemptions on fuel for commercial international shipping.

Do you really want to pay higher airfares?