WTTC attacks European airline tax proposals
Europe’s travel and tourism industry’s potential faces being undermined by European Parliament proposals to impose airline fuel and ticket taxes, the World Travel & Tourism Council has warned.
Euro discussions on aviation’s impact on climate change resulted in conclusions which “did not take in the larger picture of the challenges which need to be managed,” the WTTC claimed.
“The recommendations to introduce kerosene taxes and ticket taxes threaten to stifle long-term growth and besides placing an additional burden on air transport, only address one side of the problem,” the WTTC said.
“Such counsel would not only put the industry within Europe at a great disadvantage compared with the rest of the world, but would also increase the proportional environmental impact through delays on the ground and in the air.”
Europe’s economy and environment and “global positioning” will suffer if the recommendations of the European Parliament’s talks were to come to fruition, the WTTC warned.
“Instead, we should seize the opportunity to address all challenges facing the airline industry to arrive at the most environmentally sound and sustainable approach to transport without scapegoating particular sectors, echoing the European Commission’s message of ‘Keep Europe Moving’,” said the WTTC
WTTC president, Jean-Claude Baumgarten said, “There is simply no transport alternative to air travel for medium and long-haul travel. Currently in Europe we see the demand increasing but this is never satisfied or supported by the necessary infrastructure development.
“We have the telling example of Terminal 3 at Heathrow which in the 1980’s was planned to service 10 million passengers a year. It is now facing the challenge of over capacity to double that figure. Twenty million passengers pass through Terminal 3 on a yearly basis now and that brings many problems.
“As a result in Europe, we have an infrastructure reaching breaking point, struggling to keep up with itself. If we could work together to address the obstacle of infrastructure we could then prevent aeroplanes from circling over airports because of congestion, which happens more and more frequently and has a very wasteful and detrimental effect on the environment.”
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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