Environmentalists slam Welsh air link subsidy
07.05.08
Environmentalists have slammed the Welsh Assembly Government after it emerged that taxpayers have paid more than £80 in subsidy for every passenger who used the new air link between Anglesey and Cardiff Airport in its first year, calling it ‘excessive’. The subsidy is double the average fare on the service.
The two return flights per weekday service between RAF Valley and Cardiff Airport was launched on May 8 last year. By the end of April, 14,133 passenger journeys had been made, with an average of one in five seats unoccupied.
Flight operator Highland Airways receives £800,000 a year from the Welsh Assembly Government, which also gives Anglesey council £400,000 for the cost of running Maes Awyr Môn, the civilian terminal at RAF Valley. The subsidy works out at around £84 for each passenger who travelled in the service’s first year. Fares range from £20 to £50 one way, and the average paid in the first year was £42.
Gordon James, of Friends of the Earth, said: ‘The subsidy per passenger is excessive. If the service has succeeded, they should slash the subsidy. It’s sending out the wrong message. We want to see subsidy going to the north-south rail service, where improvements are needed.’ It’s often the better-off who will fly, and they are getting a high subsidy from the taxpayer. Poorer people will go by train or bus, with less of a subsidy per passenger.’
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