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Changes have been made to aviation taxes which will come into place from November 2009. The new tax will charge aeroplanes and not passengers. At the moment a short haul flight from Britain will be charged at £10. These new taxes will be higher and it is predicted to raise £2.5 billion a year. Taxes will be charged on each plane and based on length of flight, age of plane, engine emissions and capacity to which the plane flies. Mix responses have come out of this new decision. Those who support the new tax include Greenpeace, who state that they want planes that fly half empty to be penalised. Easy Jet also support the new tax, as the old tax would charge a family who wanted a holiday but rich people with private jets were not being charged. The new tax also takes into account more specific aspects of what creates higher fuel emissions or penalizations for wastage. The old tax would charge people the same tax regarding of the distance they travelled, which another reason why a short haul company like Easy Jet is supporting the new tax decision. British Airways and Ryanair are at the other end of the spectrum and disagree with the new tax. Ryanair is against it as it still has not been proven that the money raised from the taxes is actually spent on the environment. BA specialises on Long-haul flights and at the moment they have a more mature fleet. Although BA is in the process of replacing their fleet for newer models the company will be faced with higher taxes than other air travel corporations.
Staff editor, Gas & Electricity Section, November 2007 |
