News: Easyjet calls for end to air tax proposals
Flights > News > # 1217 (14/03/2007)
The boss of Britain’s biggest budget airline is urging politicians on all sides to support the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme rather than introducing punitive taxes on the aviation industry.
Easyjet chief executive, Andy Harrison, said forcing people to pay more tax was not fair, especially in a country so very dependent on air links for its international mobility. He added that proposals such as imposing VAT on domestic tickets, adding a fuel duty to domestic flights or limiting people’s ability to travel, would be difficult to manage and easy to abuse.
Instead, Harrison said the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme is the way forward.
Easyjet chief executive, Andy Harrison, said: “There is a more measured and more efficient approach than simply asking people to pay more tax. Air passenger duty is ripe for reform, but politicians must learn the lessons of history and realise that an island economy in a globalised world needs international solutions in an international industry,” he said
“The industry is working towards the introduction of aviation into the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme from 2011 which will provide a financial incentive for airlines to operate the cleanest aircraft available – this is the right way to balance aviation’s huge social and economic contribution with its impact on climate change. Anything else just looks like meaningless political posturing.”
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Mr Harrison's point about Britain being an island nation might well be a very valid one, but this is also the reason for the government being able to get away with a higher rate of air passenger duty. We are sure that there are equally strong environmental voices in countries like the Netherlands and Belgium, but any attempt to raise aviation taxes there will be met by claims that passengers can just circumvent these charges by flying from another airport across the border in a country with a lower rate of aviation tax.
We would also like to see a major airline like Easyjet point out that it is totally unnecessary to propose additional fuel duties or VAT on domestic flights, as they are already taxed at twice the rate of international flights, since air passenger duty is levied on the return flight as well as the outbound flight.
If there is any city which will get doubly stung by the latest air passenger duty rise, then it has to be Belfast, which coincidentally is a major Easyjet base. However reasonable arguments might be about substituting short-haul flights between London and cities like Manchester or Newcastle with rail journeys, the same cannot be said about flights between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Considering that Northern Ireland has seen a huge resurgence in recent years, it would be a travesty to see this economic development being curtailed by a punitive domestic flights tax regime. Meanwhile, passengers living in Northern Ireland might also end up by taking flights from Dublin instead, as there is currently no air passenger duty on flights from the Republic of Ireland to the UK.
