Airline chiefs unite in call on UK to scrap passenger duty

Published on Friday 30 December 2011 03:54

BRITAIN’s airline bosses have banded together in a renewed call for an abolition of the “injustice” of airline passenger duty (APD) when aviation businesses enter the new European Union emissions trading scheme (ETS) in the new year.

Willie Walsh of the British Airways‑owning International Airlines Group has joined Carolyn Mcall of EasyJet, Steve Ridgway of Virgin Atlantic and Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary to issue a statement today that the introduction of the ETS is a good time to ditch the controversial airline tax introduced on UK passengers in November 2009.

They say: “Airlines’ entry into the EU emissions trading scheme on 1 January brings the injustice of APD into even sharper relief. APD was initially conceived as a green tax, and the Treasury still maintains it brings environmental benefits.

“The reality is that no APD revenue has ever been spent on environmental benefit. In contrast, ETS means that all future growth in European aviation will be carbon‑neutral, and provides an incentive for further reductions in emissions.”

In a cranking up of the crossfire with the Treasury on the tax, the British airline rivals say that the government’s own figures show that UK aviation was paying enough to cover its carbon costs in full in 2008, “since when APD has more than doubled on many routes”. Walsh, O’Leary and their counterparts at Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet say that, under ETS, UK airlines face paying €400 million (£336m) by 2020.

Annual revenue from APD stands at £2.5 billion, and the government has said it wants this to rise to £3.6bn by 2016.

“We are already tackling our climate change impacts and ETS, while far from perfect, goes with the grain of improving environmental performance,” the statement adds. “APD actually makes it more difficult for airlines to invest in carbon‑reducing technology. APD is a self‑defeating tax that pays for no environmental benefits, chokes off economic recovery and cuts jobs.”

Under the ETS, the EU will cap the amount of CO2 airlines can emit, based on emissions in 2005. Carriers will have to “buy” allowances to cover 18 per cent of this level in 2012 and 23 per cent from 2013.

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TRUTHSLEUTH

Friday, December 30, 2011 at 03:41 PM

Airlines should shut up they pay no tax on fuel and receive hidden subsidy via route development grant to the cost of taxpayer. Then of course there is Duty Free

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