Walsh wants APD scrapped when emissions trading is launched
09.07.10
British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh has called on the Government to scrap Air Passenger Duty (APD), the current per passenger tax on flights, when a European Union carbon emissions trading systems begins in 2012, the Wall Street Journal reports. He said in a speech delivered to members of the Aviation Club yesterday: ‘We cannot go on layering ever more punitive tax burdens on this industry.'
Mr Walsh said he had ‘no problem with the objective’ of the EU emissions trading system provided it recognized the fact that UK airlines already more than meet their environmental costs through payment of APD. When the latest round of APD rises take effect in November, airlines will be paying more than twice their carbon costs.
He added: ‘We agree that emissions trading is the most effective fiscal instrument for shrinking aviation's carbon output. So when it arrives, at global or European level, let us drop additional taxes, which otherwise threaten the ability of UK airlines to provide the quality air links on which national economic success depends.’
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