News: Dutch take inspiration from UK flights tax hike
Flights > News > # 1323 (18/06/2007)
Flights to the Netherlands could get a whole lot more expensive if the Dutch government gets its way.
Proposals have been put forward to make passengers leaving the Netherlands pay a €25 (£17) tax. The new charge has been inspired by Gordon Brown’s decision to double air passenger duty in the UK earlier this year from £5 to £10, much to the consternation of airlines and consumers alike.
Brown’s tax hike was masked as a measure to help the environment, and Dutch politicians are taking a similar line.
The Association of European Airlines (AEA) has slammed the proposal, claiming it would be nothing more than a revenue-generator for the Dutch Finance Ministry. The AEA added that Dutch airline KLM has already agreed to a national emissions trading scheme based on agreed emissions targets.
AEA Secretary General Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus said: “If they were to lose passengers to their international competitors, Dutch airlines would have to absorb the costs of the tax themselves, reducing their ability to invest in the fleet renewal and other technological advances which was where the real environmental benefits lay.”
Schulte-Strathaus said if the Dutch government really wants to benefit the environment, it should support the creation of a single European air traffic control system.
He said: “Currently, an inefficient air traffic management system obliges airlines to waste fuel in circuitous routings and holding patterns over congested airports, when a more efficient use of airspace would reduce up to 12% of current emissions.”
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Comment:
At least the Dutch government have the decency to launch a proper consultation on the issue, unlike Gordon Brown, who merely snatched the extra tax from passengers who had already booked their flights, as well as from those who were still making their holiday plans.
Here at Flightmapping.com, we've never opposed the polluter pays principle, but we have always argued that the £10 air passenger duty is far greater than the actual carbon cost of flights, using figures provided by the same government which has just upped our own taxes.
We'd expect a bit more common sense from our Dutch friends, especially as transfer traffic is such a major part of their aviation industry. Amsterdam Schiphol airport offers more links to UK regional airports than London Heathrow does, and anyone taking connections with KLM might now be subject to an extra £34 charge on top of their existing ticket prices.
We know that point-to-point travel is significantly cleaner than transfer flights, just as much as we know that KLM's fleet is not exactly the youngest in Europe. However, yet another blunt levy of this nature will do little to encourage airlines to invest in much needed fleet renewal programmes.
