Labour must get tough with airlines - Huhne

1.18.24pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 5th Jan 2007

Commenting on the Environment minister Ian Pearson's criticism of airlines over emissions, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary, Chris Huhne MP said:

"Turkeys don't vote for Christmas, and airlines don't back curbs on aviation emissions. The only surprises are that it has taken so long for a Labour government to wake up to the problem, and that the Chancellor has missed the opportunity in his pre-budget report to do more than half-measures.

"The minister would do better to tackle his government colleagues rather than the airlines.

"His rise in air passenger duty risks being seen as just another stealth tax because he has failed to offer cuts in other taxes to compensate. We need greener taxes, but not higher taxes overall.

"The increase will fail to have any serious impact because it is still based on passengers, not emissions. By basing the duty on emissions, airlines would have the incentive to fly full, rather than half empty, planes and to invest in higher efficiency modern aircraft. It would also fairly catch freight in the tax system and properly price long-distance fresh food imports.

"Nobody is talking about ending cheap flights, but the explosive growth of air travel has to slow sharply and the most sensible means of doing so is by including all flights in the EU emissions trading scheme and imposing a fair basis of tax on fuel - an EU wide kerosene tax. There should also be a rise in national emissions taxation to compensate for the lack of value added tax on tickets.

"It is nonsense to argue that fair air taxes would hit the poor. Eighty per cent of flights are taken by those in the top half of the income distribution flying more often, and the average income of leisure flyers is nearly double the national average."

Applicability: this item refers to England and Wales. Due to devolution, detailed policy may be different in other areas of the UK.