Shadow spokesman for the environment Peter Ainsworth has condemned the doubling of Air Passenger Duty by the Government in February as a “stealth tax”.
The MP, a long-standing campaigner on environmental issues, is one of the keynote speakers at super-consortium Triton’s second annual conference in Portugal this weekend, expected to be attended by 800 delegates.
He said he is looking to forge an improved relationship between the Tories and the aviation industry so the party can better understand how it can tackle the environmental issues that the Government claimed the APD rise was approved to tackle.
“The doubling of APD had no relationship with the environment, it is an increase in tax – a stealth tax and not a green tax,” Ainsworth said.
He claimed the aviation industry has lost touch with the public and must engage more to extol the benefits of flying if it is to stave off attacks from the green movement.
“This is an important industry and it brings pleasure to many people each year but we need to look at everything we do in the context of climate change. There is growing evidence of public concern about climate change through aviation without acceptance of the benefits it brings.
“If the arguments concerning climate change are right, and the current aviation growth patterns are also right, aviation may become a pariah if it isn’t more aware of growing public concerns.
“What we need is a proper debate about is how we can get the aviation industry to pay its fair share of the environmental cost it is generating, as most other industries do.”
Triton announced in April that it is considering a single environmental policy for all three member consortia.