News / Early parcel tax debut ravages air cargo volumes at Vatry

The premature introduction in France of an EU-wide tax on small parcels from ecommerce marketplaces such as Shein, Temu, and AliExpress, has prompted a 65% drop in Vatry Airport’s cargo volumes in just ten weeks.

And to stave off the threat of closure, a restructuring plan, which includes redundancies and a reduction in airport opening hours, has been drawn up.

Seventeen of Vatry’s 97-strong workforce are to lose their jobs, operations will be scaled back from June, and the airport will be closed on Sundays and at 7pm on weekdays.

The parcel tax will take effect across the whole bloc in July, part of a Customs reform programme. But, in a bid to defend their clothing industries and level the competitive playing field with the Chinese fast-fashion marketplaces, France brought the tax, of €2 per item, forward to March.

By 3 March, customs declarations for small parcels at Paris CDG, the country’s biggest air cargo hub, had fallen 92%; Vatry handled 2,000 tonnes in January, which quickly fell to 800 tonnes post-tax, as goods shifted to rivals like Liège, Schiphol, and Frankfurt, with parcels for France forwarded by truck.

CDG was estimated to have lost around 50 freighter flights in the first week after the tax – Italy, which also brought the tax in early, suffered similar consequences and decided on a temporary postponement of the levy.

France’s director-general of Customs, Florian Colas, told the National Assembly’s Economic Affairs Committee this week: “We have gone from approximately 500,000 [small parcel] declarations a day to around 50,000 today, which corresponds to [tax] revenue of €2.3m per month.” The French authorities had estimated the tax would generate revenue of €400m over a year.

Jean-Marc Roze, president of the Marne public authority, which owns Vatry Airport, described the situation as “completely mad”.

“This tax is ruining everything; pallets of small parcels from Shein or Temu are now being routed via Belgium to avoid it. Then there are longer truck journeys (to bring the goods to France), polluting the roads – it’s completely mad.”

Given the length of its runway, Vatry is capable of handling some of the biggest freighter aircraft and can handle 150,000 tonnes a year. Mr Roze added: “Even at 50,000 tonnes, we could manage without any subsidies.”

 Ironically, as recently as the end of last year, Vatry was hiring staff in anticipation of cargo growth.

 With the introduction of the parcel tax across the EU from 1 July, Vatry is hoping it will mark the return of the ‘ecommerce freighters’ – however, there are no guarantees in an air cargo market beset by elevated jet fuel prices and volatile demand.