Aviation and the Environment: A Tourism Perspective

Andrew Cooper, director general, Federation of Tour Operators (www.fto.co.uk).

Barely a day passes without a strongly worded article appearing in the press, demanding that some form of taxation be introduced on aviation to address its environmental impacts. The writers generally urge governments, whether they be in the UK, Brussels or elsewhere to introduce taxes with the primary purpose of restricting demand for air travel. The travel industry, and the Federation of Tour Operators in particular believe this approach to be based on a fundamental misunderstanding or misrepresentation of the true environmental impacts of aviation.

There is no doubt that aviation does account for a portion of global carbon emissions – currently estimated at two per cent globally, and that at present, it makes no direct contribution to its environmental cost. In the UK, Air Passenger Duty is being presented as an environmental measure, although the receipts – estimated at £2 billion annually after the increases on February 1st - are not hypothecated towards environmental issues. Also APD is in any event an extremely blunt instrument which, by levying duty on the numbers of passengers on a flight, perversely penalises our members’ highly efficient full flights and effectively ‘rewards’ half empty flights from less efficient airlines.

The FTO believes that the environmental impacts of aviation are best addressed by the introduction of aviation into the existing EU emissions trading scheme, as a precursor to a global emissions trading scheme being established.

Furthermore, any attempts to address the issue must not treat aviation as some form of discretionary activity. Aviation is essential for world trade, and many tourism economies in particular are dependent upon a flourishing aviation industry for their economic survival. For example, over half the GDP of the Caribbean is derived from tourism, and the majority of that is dependent upon aviation.

The aviation industry is also working desperately hard in continuing to improve its environmental performance. Many measures are being taken to improve fuel efficiency, and the UK aviation industry has entered into a programme of work with the UK government, more details of which can be found at www.sustainableaviation.co.uk which is aimed at addressing all aspects of environmental performance.

In the quest to address the damage that man is doing to the planet, there are no simple solutions. We are concerned that the current trend of attacking aviation and those who fly appears to be aimed purely at finding such a simple solution, and in our submission that approach is misguided.