Travel Convention: Walsh attacks transport minister
International Airlines Group chief executive Willie Walsh lived up to his billing as a star attraction at the Travel Convention by launching a blistering attack on the government.
Walsh, in an interview with moderator Alastair Stewart, said air passenger duty (APD) was hugely damaging and accused transport minister Philip Hammond of not being interested in transport.
“Philip Hammond is very intelligent but he doesn’t seem to be interested in transport – he looks at APD as the impact it will have on the deficit, not air travel.”
Walsh described APD as a poll tax on air travel and called for it to be removed.
“I believe this government needs to set aside their fixation on the revenue and try to understand the full economic impact of the high unsustainable taxes
“We’ve had a decline in air travel for three years in a row; we had higher passenger levels in 2004 than now, while everyone else continues to grow.”
Walsh said there was not an environmental case for retaining or, as the government plans, raising APD in the future because every other country is expanding rapidly.
Walsh warned that if there was no change in policy, some British Airways routes would be cut.
“If APD doubles by 2015, it will have a serious impact on a number of routes and will reduce the network served from Heathrow and the rest of the UK. You cannot extract more and more money from fewer people,” said Walsh.
IAG, a merger between British Airways and Iberia, has seen an improvement in results in 2011 over the past two years and Walsh said he was very optimistic about the future.
“Everything going forward looks healthy but I pick up newspapers and watch the television and it’s all doom and gloom.
“There is a risk of talking ourselves into recession. People are frightened about the future because there is so much negativity and uncertainty but there is real concern that we will talk ourselves into a recession that doesn’t exist.”
By Jeremy Skidmore
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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