Giovanni Bisignani, head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), lashed out against the increase in UK Air Passenger Duty (APD) at an event in London this week. The IATA chief called this approach to lowering the national debt “potty” and not an effective way for the government to assist the industry in offsetting aviation emissions. The increase in ADP, he said will raise annual revenue to £2.7 billion, enough “to offset all of the UK’s aviation emissions four times! To borrow a UK phrase, this is potty”. He added: “Environment policy should not be designed around paying the bills for the government’s failure to effectively regulate the financial sector. This punitive approach isolates the UK from the rest of the world.”
In an interview with the Economist, Bisignani said that the last time he presented similar figures was in the Netherlands, shortly before the Dutch government decided to drop their equivalent of APD in 2009 after a year because the money it raised was less than the money the economy was losing as a result of abandoned travel plans. This is perhaps the outcome hoped for by the IATA chief following his forthright speech this week.