And you’re correct. Everyone’s “favourite” low cost carrier – Ryanair – will be applying another levy on all tickets sold from 17th Janaury 2012.
The £0.25/€0.25 levy which will be charged per passenger per segment is to cover costs incurred from the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. For Ryanair, this has a cost of at least €15 million – which isn’t pocket change.
Ryanair states:
“Ryanair will introduce a 25c ETS levy on every seat from Tues 17th January next to cover our estimated €15m – €20m ETS bill for 2012. Ryanair does not believe that European aviation should be included in the ETS scheme since it accounts for less than 2% of the EU’s CO2 emissions. This latest EU stealth tax will damage traffic, tourism, European competiveness and jobs at a time when no other economic block is including aviation in their ETS schemes.
This new ETS tax is the latest in a long line of cost increases imposed on Europe’s air passengers by the European Union, which reduces the competitiveness of EU air transport with yet another misguided ‘environmental’ tax which does nothing for the environment but penalises EU consumers and families.”
Sadly, with ETS now hitting airlines, some have already implemented the charge (such as Lufthansa), some have chosen to withdraw (in the case of Air Asia X).
Expect more charges to be hitting your tickets sooner rather than later…
Ryan Air is wrong. The EU is taking the environmental damage of burning fossil fuels seriously. If we pollute when traveling we would pay for mitigation actions. I feel better about flying to Europe because they are stepping up. The costs are minor, but important.