Airline passenger news and views

Who said war about air could not be? First we fought for land, now it will be for air… In fact, the war has already started between the European Union and airlines…

As of January 1st 2012, the EU will be able to tax any airline coming in or out of the EU for its carbon emissions, as part of the new Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

This new carbon tax has, as can be expected, created much turmoil in the air: the US, China, India, Canada and several European airlines strongly disapprove and some are ready to retaliate. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says that the tax is a break from international law, violating the Chicago Convention of 1945 which did not tax on fuel.

The US has already appealed to the European Court of Justice, which however ruled in favour of the tax on the 1st of January 2012. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it will react if this decision was indeed to be officially implemented by the EU.

Four Chinese airlines - Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and Hainan Airlines - say this will cost them an extra 95 million Euros annually. Retaliation is also their response. The Emirates expects this to cost them more than half a billion Euros by 2020. Etihad Airways estimates the additional costs to be 310 million Euros over the next 9 year.

This probably means that we, passengers, will have to pay higher fares since much of this cost will be passed down. And the longer the fares; the higher the costs. Germany's most important airline, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, has already started shifting a good amount of its extra costs for this year, estimated at 130 million Euros, to its passengers.

Environmentalists support the new scheme and hope that transport industries will be compelled to reduce their gas emissions. In their view, since the aviation world significantly contributes to climate change, green efforts should not exclude them.

While this scheme might be beneficial to reduce pollution, it might just make more sense to spend this extra capital into becoming greener and avoid what is going to be a very tense political and trade air scene in the near future…

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