News: Easyjet call for green tax to replace air passenger duty

Flights > News > # 1473 (19/09/2007)

Easyjet has called for air passenger duty (APD) to be replaced by a green tax based on aircraft types and distance travelled.
The no-frills carrier said it already covered its full environmental costs more than four times over and that passengers should not be "green-rollered" into accepting higher taxes.
Easyjet also said the UK taxed aviation more heavily than any other European country and more heavily than any other form of transport.
The airline said APD netted around £2.4billion for Government coffers each year, but did not reflect emissions of individual flights and was a tax from which 40 per cent of UK aviation was exempt. Easyjet said it was a “grotesque insult” that APD taxes families but not private jets.
The airline’s stance on aviation’s impact on the environment has been published in a report entitled ‘Towards Greener Skies: The Surprising Truth About Flying And The Environment’.
Replacing APD with a tax based on aircraft types and distance travelled would mean all UK aviation would be included and airlines would have an incentive to operate the most environmentally-efficient aircraft, Easyjet said.
Easyjet chief executive Andy Harrison said climate change was a real and imminent danger and aviation had to be green and economically sustainable.
With more than a passing nod to last week’s Tory ‘Quality of Life’ report, Harrison said: "Much of the recent political debate has been characterised by gesture politics and discriminatory, often contradictory proposals and it is time for consumers to tell the politicians they won't be 'green-rollered' into accepting higher air taxes for spurious green rationale.
"Politicians of all colours recognise that different cars have different emissions but do not see the same distinction within air travel.
"We are an island nation in a globalised economy yet the UK already taxes flying more heavily than any other European country while making high-speed rail available only to those living in south-east England.”
He added: “Taxing families but not private jets is a grotesque insult. The time has come to scrap APD and replace it with a 'polluter tax' that has at its heart a very simple notion - those that fly on airlines that pollute less, like easyJet, should pay less.
"We should all demand a more intelligent approach to flying. Politicians must incentivise consumers to take the greener option when it is available - this means banning the dirty, old aircraft from our skies; getting the right tax regime in place to reward cleaner behaviour; being realistic about the value of aviation and resisting the temptation to advocate alternatives when no such alternatives exist."
A Treasury spokesman said inclusion of the airline industry in the EU emissions trading scheme was the best way to tackle aviation's contribution to global warming. “Until this happens, we believe that APD has a role to play in sending signals to air passengers about the environmental consequences of their actions.”

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