Low-cost for much longer?
- 5 Jan 07, 12:32 PM
Thinking about that weekend in Tallinn? You better go before it’s too late.
The Environment Minister Ian Pearson has dug out Ted Heath's old phrase to brand Ryanair "". Ryanair's crime is that its publicity-hungry boss is resisting the new conventional wisdom that says that we're all going to have to fly less, and pay more if we do fly, to combat climate change.
Intriguingly Pearson and Labour are not alone in taking on the low-cost airline. The Tories’ green policy review group is discussing plans to tax flights within the UK to encourage people to travel by rail. One of its members, the former transport minister Steve Norris argues that low-cost flights must - quite simply - get much much more expensive. (Indeed, he recently made this case on Decision Time - which I spoke about here.)
The Lib Dems published detailed proposals for ending air travel's low tax status last year.
The politicians say air travel's under-taxed compared with other forms of transport and that flight emissions are the fastest growing contributor to global warming. Ryanair replies that flights here are a tiny proportion of the problem compared with China's plans to open a new coal-fired power station every week. It just could be that they're both right.
