Airlines attack Stolpe over jet fuel tax

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Environmental update

call Environment Daily 1783, 06/12/04

Europe's airline industry association (AEA) has urged the German government against introducing unilateral taxes on jet fuel for domestic flights. The association was responding to a statement made last week by German transport minister Manfred Stolpe, who backed the idea to provide a level competitive playing field for railways.

Mr Stolpe made his comments in the context of current discussions within Germany's governing coalition over the future of its ecological tax reform programme. Environmental groups are campaigning for tax on jet fuel on the back of rapid growth in the low-cost aviation sector (ED 02/09/02).

A German kerosene tax would be "untimely, unhelpful and ineffective", AEA retorted on Friday. It would fail to make rail transport more competitive, dramatically increase costs for German airlines and have only marginal environmental effects, especially since firms would take steps to refuel aircraft in other countries, the association said.

Overall, "such measures would have a direct negative impact on economic growth, jobs and European competitiveness at a time when the European airlines are not only competing against each other, but are also competing in the world ", it concluded.

Follow-up: AEA, tel: +32 2 639 89 89, and press release; German transport ministry, Tel: +49 30 20080.

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