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VAT on fuel duty will harm flights within UK says Cheapflights
“We are delighted that David Cameron has agreed to drop air passenger taxes for air passengers exceeding a fixed number of air miles per year but would query the benefits of VAT on fuel duty on flights within the UK” says Mo Bulbrook, Senior Vice President of Cheapflights International.

Bulbrook argues that whilst accepting the need to tackle CO2 emissions globally, adding VAT on fuel duty on flights within the UK just loads even more taxes on to an already over-burdened airline industry.

“This will target detrimentally regional and UK based airlines making air travel within the UK “elitist” and have a detrimental affect on UK airlines (and the supporting industry) without having much impact on global air traffic. Many people regularly use regional airlines to connect to major international airports such as Gatwick, Heathrow & Manchester to fly internationally and the proposed tax would penalise these people too having knock on affects for UK business and leisure,” added Bulbrook.

Mo Bulbrook continues, “The implication of this is that we risk delaying the introduction of more fuel efficient fleets within the UK which are far more likely to tackle this issue head on. World class aircraft such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, due for launch in 2008, can reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions by 16% compared to the 747-400 which it replaces. This is where the future lies.”

She says, “it is unrealistic to expect some people to give up flying for environmental reasons but the effect of the policy on the environment would be negligible.”

Mo Bulbrook points out that aviation’s current global contribution to manmade emissions is between 3% and 3.5%. This is very small when counted as a proportion of the transport sector as a whole, which contributes to approximately 25% of global emissions. Vicky Karantzavelou - Wednesday, September 12, 2007