David Learmount/LONDON
Adopting measures to limit the increase in demand for air travel is one of the possible directions for future UK Government aviation policy, according to a consultation document just announced by Transport Minister Lord Macdonald. Imposing taxes on aviation fuel is one of the options for achieving this, the document makes clear.
The deadline for responses to the document is 12 April, when the government will start work on a White Paper defining aviation policy "for the next 30 years", according to Macdonald.
The fuel tax option harmonises with European Commission thinking. The EC has already made public the fact that it is considering imposing aviation fuel taxes, even for foreign aircraft on international flights, despite warning signals from the USA that this would be unacceptable.
The number of passengers using UK airports would double within 15 years if growth is unrestrained, Macdonald points out. One of the options put up for debate is to allow purely market-led growth, but this is hedged with a condition which suggests taxes. "If aviation covers its environmental costs," the consultation paper asks, "should capacity then be provided to meet demand?"
UK Aviation Minister Chris Mullin has already stated that the government intends to adopt a "demand management" approach rather than a "predict and provide" policy - which referred to runway provision in the capacity-strapped south-east and London areas.
Questions posed about air freight presume similar fiscal treatment within an overall aviation policy, but the additional considerations include whether special cargo airports should be encouraged and whether rail links to cargo terminals could be improved.
The document ponders whether the UK's position as a hub for interconnecting traffic should be maintained. This was the policy advanced by the last aviation White Paper in 1985. Today's paper observes that seats taken by interlining passengers might limit domestic travel activity in a market where airport capacity is constrained, but concludes that imposing conditions on how airlines sell their product may be impossible.
Source: Flight International
