News: Steven Norris defends flights tax proposals

Flights > News > # 932 (30/08/2006)

Former Transport Minister Steven Norris has defended his suggestion that air passenger duty should be raised to £20 on short-haul European flights, claiming that this measure would encourage more passengers to switch to less polluting rail travel. Mr Norris has also been quoted as saying that his policy suggestion would "not please (Easyjet founder) Stelios and (Ryanair chief executive) Michael O'Leary", but that it would be welcomed by the environmental lobby.

Comment:

Steven Norris' latest comments further reinforce the naivety and narrowmindedness of his proposals. Specifically singling out the budget airlines Easyjet and Ryanair gives a strong sense of snobbishness to Norris' views, which is not uncommon amongst many politicians and environmental campaigners. Their argument seems to be that it is perfectly acceptable for people to continue to fly with the 'old-fashioned' airlines like British Airways and KLM, but that opportunities to take cheap flights on these classless no-frills airlines should be curtailed. Such logic completely ignores the fact that the no-frills airlines tend to use far more modern and environmentally friendly aircraft than many of the ‘legacy’ carriers

The idea that large numbers of passengers will be persuaded to travel by train instead of flying is even more ludicrous. We have always been very happy to talk up the benefits of train travel when compared to a short flight, but have done so on the basis that customers will make their decisions based on factors such as reliability, frequency of service and on-board comfort, rather than environmental emissions. If travellers cannot be persuaded to make altruistic choice of travel mode (those who do will always be in a minority), then we don't see a problem in imposing some form of environmental charge to cover the alleged extra emmissions that aircraft generate.

In Norris’ fantasy world, we’ll all be whizzing about the country on high-speed Maglevs – nice idea in theory, but this is a pipe dream. The majority of flights from the UK are to Spain, the USA, Greece, and southern / rural France – how on earth will rail substitute aircraft on these routes? The environmental case for trains is also often overstated considering their low occupancy rates and “displaced” pollution.

As we have stated in our previous comments on this issue, the Conservatives have got to think their environmental policies through more carefully if they are going to have any credibility. Norris’ plan is short-termist, grossly unfair and frankly pathetic. All this from the chairman of shamed rail engineering company Jarvis, dear oh dear.