‘Green Tax’ Risk To Travel Industry?

A new British tax, touted as a green initiative designed to reduce the aviation industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by deterring travel, might cause hardship for long-haul travellers next year. According to a news report, travellers from Singapore to London will have to pay as much as £100 (RM550) more per round trip compared to someone on a shorter flight.

The charge, currently ranging from £11 to £110, is based on class of travel and distance flown, with premium long-haul passengers potentially paying the most. Several other countries, including Australia, are considering introducing a similar penalty.

Singapore Airlines’ chief executive officer Chew Choon Seng was reported to have said that such a system is “clearly unfair and discriminatory” against long-haul travellers at the annual meeting of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), held at the Conrad Centennial Singapore recently.

According to the AAPA, departure and other taxes imposed by governments already make up about 15 percent of the average ticket price. And there are new waves of taxation in the pipeline, often said to be deceptively packaged as a green initiatives. One of these, which has got the industry up in arms, is the European Union’s plan to include the aviation industry in its emission trading scheme in 2012.

Again a distance-based scheme that penalises long-haul travellers, all carriers that fly to Europe will have to keep to a stipulated amount of carbon emissions based on a set schedule, or else pay extra.◊