Key figures — as of 2026-08-25: €31.48 million raised by Portugal's air passenger carbon levy in the first half of 2026 — up 2.9% on the same period in 2025 — with €266.58 million collected cumulatively since the levy began in July 2021, of which €258.58 million has been passed to the Environmental Fund; the fixed charge remains €2 per passenger on departure from a Portuguese airport.
A small tax, a big pile of coins
Portugal's carbon levy on air passengers generated €31.48 million in revenue during the first half of 2026, according to figures the national aviation regulator ANAC supplied to the financial newspaper ECO. That's not loose change for a €2-per-head charge — and it confirms the fee, introduced almost exactly five years ago as a green tax to nudge airlines toward cleaner fuel, has become a steady and growing line item in the state's books. The figure represents a 2.9% increase compared to the same period last year, when the levy brought in roughly €30.6 million.
For foreigners living in Portugal, this is the tax you never think about until you're staring at a plane ticket to visit parents in São Paulo, Delhi or Manchester and notice a €2 "environmental" line buried in the fare breakdown. It's not new — it dates back to a 2021 ordinance — but the scale it's now reached, and the fact it keeps climbing, makes it worth a closer look for anyone who flies in and out of Portugal regularly.
How the money moves
From its implementation in July 2021 through the end of June 2026, accumulated revenue from this levy, set at two euros per passenger on commercial flights, reached €266.58 million; of this amount, €258.58 million has already been transferred by the regulator to the Environmental Fund. The pattern across this year's first half tells its own story about Portuguese travel seasonality: May and June saw the highest amounts collected from airlines, totalling €7 million and €6.6 million respectively, while January recorded the lowest monthly revenue volume of the half-year, at €3.9 million.
Airlines and other aircraft operators collect the €2 charge at the point of ticket issuance and remit it to ANAC monthly, rather than passengers paying it separately. Air carriers and aircraft owners or operators handle the fee settlement process and report the data supporting the calculated amounts, along with any exemptions granted, and reduced rates apply to aircraft running on lower-carbon fuels. Almost all of it ends up ring-fenced: the entire net revenue is allocated to the Environmental Fund, with only a marginal fraction retained to cover the regulator's administrative costs, earmarked to finance decarbonisation of public transport and research into the aviation sector's energy transition.
GrowIN's read: what this actually means at the departure gate
Do the maths on that €31.48 million and you get a striking number: at €2 per taxed passenger, that works out to roughly 15.7 million chargeable departures from Portuguese airports in just six months — a rough proxy, by GrowIN's calculation, for how much air traffic the country handled in the first half of the year alone. It's a reminder of just how much Portugal's economy, and its foreign resident population, moves through Lisbon, Porto and Faro airports.
The levy is only charged when you depart from a Portuguese airport, not on the inbound leg, so a family of four flying home from Lisbon pays €8 once, not on the return. It sounds trivial — and it is, per trip. But for a foreign family that flies back to see relatives twice a year, or that books flights for visiting grandparents landing in Portugal and then departing again, those €2 charges stack quietly alongside airport fees, fuel surcharges and the baggage costs airlines have become notorious for tacking on.
"Two euros a ticket is invisible until you're buying four of them, twice a year, for the rest of your life in Portugal," as GrowIN Portugal Editorial puts it.
The bigger picture: fees are climbing, not falling
This levy isn't happening in isolation. Airlines have separately clashed with airport operator ANA over proposed increases to airport charges meant to help fund a new Lisbon-area airport, and industry figures have warned that a combination of environmental levies, sustainable-fuel mandates and airport fee rises could push up the price of shorter flights in the years ahead. None of that changes what the carbon levy itself costs today — €2 a head is still €2 a head — but it does suggest that the overall tax and fee load on flying out of Portugal is trending upward, not down.
What to watch
There's no indication the €2 rate itself is under review, and it has stayed flat since the levy's 2021 launch even as its scope expanded to business jets in 2023. What foreign residents should watch instead is the broader airport-fee debate and any further diversion of carbon levy proceeds toward sustainable aviation fuel subsidies, which the government has already signalled it wants to expand. None of this affects visas, tax residency or NIF requirements — but it's exactly the kind of quiet, recurring cost that adds up for anyone budgeting a life split between Portugal and family abroad. For a fuller picture of what relocating to and living in Portugal costs beyond the headline figures, see our relocation guide.
Anyone planning frequent trips home should simply factor a couple of euros per ticket into the budget and move on — it's a rounding error next to airfares themselves, but a real one, and it isn't going away.