Iata slams UK air passenger tax hike
October 30, 2009
Passengers flying from the UK with all airlines, including SAA, will have to pay higher duties from Sunday.
The tax, which is intended to cut carbon emissions and raise £2.5 billion (R32bn), has been slated by the International Air Transport Association (Iata) as "completely disproportionate to the £572 million that it would cost to offset the entire carbon footprint of UK aviation".
It comes at a time when South African airport taxes are expected to rise steeply to help meet the R15bn cost of expanding and improving airports in time for the soccer World Cup next year and the huge growth in tourism expected to follow it.
The Airlines Association of Southern Africa is asking the government not to allow state-owned Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) to raise its charges by a requested 133 percent, followed by smaller increases in following years. It points out that Acsa has paid the government substantial dividends in previous years.
Iata's September survey of the industry shows a rise of 0.3 percent in international passenger numbers compared with the same month last year.
But Giovanni Bisignani, Iata's director-general and chief executive, said: "The airline industry remains firmly in the red with a fragile business environment... The worst may be over in terms of the fall in demand, but yields continue to be a disaster and costs are rising."
He said the rise in the UK air passenger duty was "the wrong response to the industry's trauma... The global economic crisis makes cost reduction (for airlines) a matter of survival.
"Charging travellers over four times for their emissions makes absolutely no sense. Instead of raising taxes, the UK government should get behind the aviation industry's ambitious targets to fight climate change by improving fuel efficiency by an average of 1.5 percent annually to 2020; stabilising emissions from 2020 with carbon-neutral growth; and cutting net emissions in half by 2050 compared with 2005 levels."
The high airport passenger duty already charged by the UK government has resulted in a drop in tourism to that country. South African travel agents say clients now prefer to change planes in the United Arab Emirates or at European airports for destinations not served directly from here. The duty for an economy seat to South Africa will rise from £40 to £50.
At a presentation in Cape Town earlier this year, representatives of Visit Britain said the tourism marketing organisation was making representations to the UK government to reduce already high taxes.
Iata's monthly surveys have shown that air travel between countries in Africa has remained healthy, but air freight has fallen. The September survey shows that African carriers' cargo operations extended their decline "from a drop of 5.1 percent in August to 6.9 percent in September".
Africa's share of international air travel, in terms of revenue per passenger-kilometre, is a low 1.8 percent, compared with Europe's 35.1 percent and Asia-Pacific's 29.3 percent.
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