The government’s aviation policy and planned rises in Air Passenger Duty have been slammed by Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary.
He described so-called ‘Heathwick’ plans for a rail link between Heathrow and Gatwick – being considered as part of the government’s aviation review – as “harebrained”.
And O’Leary criticised continued increases in APD, which is is putting off visitors and stunting growth.
“The government has no aviation policy. Britain is becoming the laughing stock of Europe. The government keeps increasing APD and then blocks all airport expansion,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
He said there was “no demand” for a rail link between London’s two largest airports and suggested that the only way to solve overcapacity in the south-east would be to build additional runways at both Heathrow and Gatwick.
O’Leary also said that APD – which is predicted to rise by up to 10% next year – was responsible for a fall in annual visitors numbers to the UK, from 35 million to 28 million since 2007. During that time the tax has been increased by between 240 and 425%, while many European countries – including Ireland and the Holland – have phased out aviation taxes.
“Unlike governments in other European countries, the Treasury do not seem to realise that taxing people is not the way to increase jobs and passenger numbers,” O’Leary said.
He accused airports operator BAA of “delaying tactics” in its bid to prevent the “inevitable” sale of Stansted and urged the government to intervene.
“Ryanair calls on the BAA monopoly to stop delaying the inevitable sale of Stansted airport and to withdraw its latest judicial review so that new ownership and competition can better meet the needs of user airlines and passengers at Stansted where BAA has repeatedly failed,” he added.