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Aviation tax hike calls 'sloppy thinking'. By Dan Martin

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20th Oct 2006
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Increasing taxes on air travel would damage the European economy, easyJet has said.

In a statement, the low cost airline said there could be a damaging impact on Europe's economy if aviation taxes are raised. Some 3.1 million jobs and €221bn of GDP in the EU-15 are dependent upon aviation, accounting for 8% of Europe’s GDP, easyJet said.

"Taxation is a blunt instrument that will only put more money into the pockets of governments, whilst discriminating against the poorest in society, who until recently were priced out of the sky," the airline said. "Crucially, and most importantly, it does not benefit the environment."

The airline was responding to a report by Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute which called on the government to raise air taxes to tackle rising carbon emissions caused by the expanding aviation industry. It said that the economic benefits of the sector's development failed to account for the negative impact on factors such as domestic tourism.

But easyJet said it must be noted that the European Commission’s own calculations show that aviation accounts for just 3% of CO2 emissions in Europe. It acknowledged however that ways of benefiting the environment such as carbon emission trading schemes rather than taxation hikes must be explored.

"A balanced debate is required to ensure practical and workable solutions can be found to address the environmental issues and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is a key initiative, providing the largest possible proportion of European flights is included," the statement continued.

"Applying ETS only to intra-European short-haul travel would only cover 20% of Europe's flying – or 1% of total EU emissions; this would appear to be insufficient and would only represent "tokenism" on the part of the EU."

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