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The French aviation industry firmly opposes any tax increase aimed at ensuring a minimum price for plane flights within Europe, Pascal de Izaguirre, CEO of Corsican air company Corsair and chairman of the aviation industry federation Fnam, told TV broadcaster BFM Business on Monday.
Last week, French Transport Minister Clément Beaune told the weekly L’Obs he would submit a proposal for a minimum price for plane flights in Europe to European counterparts and raise a historic tax imposed on all flights departing from France to finance investments in the railway infrastructure.
A minimum plane flight price is necessary to “combat social and environmental dumping”, he told L’Obs.
However, this is not good news for the airline industry, which has warned that any additional taxes could “further increase the price of air travel” on top of the 20-30% increase caused by inflation, de Izaguirre said on Monday.
“Air transport is already burdened by taxes and charges: for an intra-EU flight, half of the ticket price is just taxes,” he added.
De Izaguirre also lamented Beaune’s proposals, saying they had “not been the subject of any consultation”, especially when decarbonisation costs are rising. The industry is expected to make “gigantic investments” to go green and meet the EU’s net-zero targets by 2050: “Without taking into account the modernisation and renewal of aircraft fleets”, €1 billion will be needed by 2025 and a further €3 billion by 2030.
As for a minimum fare to fly within Europe, it should not be more than the amount of taxes that already apply; otherwise, “it would take air transport out of the market economy”.
The CEO insists that the particularly low prices charged by some airlines are evidence of dumping. However “they are the result of subsidies granted by [foreign] authorities and airports, which are prohibited”, while some airlines “do not respect French labour laws”.
“The government should focus on enforcing [existing legal obligations]” before turning to taxation.
The proposal for a minimum fare should be presented at the European level by the minister in the next few days. Additional taxes on motorway companies and airline tickets should be included in France’s 2024 budget.
(Theo Bourgery-Gonse | EURACTIV.fr)
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