Air Passenger Duty (APD) and emissions trading amount to a “slow motion train wreck”, according to the new head of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), who said industry lobbying efforts remain “amateur”.
Martin Craigs, who took over as PATA chief executive in October, accused the UK and European Union of “hypocrisy” and denounced the UK government’s recent appointment of MP Justine Greening as transport secretary.
Craigs told Travel Weekly: “Moving Greening to the Department for Transport is like asking [Real Madrid football manager] Jose Mourinho to referee the game.”
Greening has led opposition in Parliament to expanding Heathrow and was previously economic secretary to the Treasury where she was responsible for APD.
Craigs said: “The UK government and European Parliament’s positions on APD and emissions trading are hypocritical. [Together] it’s a slow motion train wreck.
“APD is an easy way to collect tax. It should be renamed the ‘detention tax’ because it’s charging people to leave the country.
“The emissions trading scheme (ETS) is ill thought out. People will get around it. It’s the principle that is the problem more than the cost. It will unbalance the playing field. It will encourage people to route through the Middle East.”
Craigs comes from an aviation background and conceded: “Aviation was slow to react to climate change.” But he said: “Part of aviation’s problem is it’s too damn efficient. It has made a rod for its own back.”
He added: “This industry is almost as big as banking, but it’s in the real world economy not the casino economy. The industry’s real problem is we are amateur at lobbying. We have to get out and confront politicians.”