To axe first-class or low-cost flying, that is the climate question
Making flights more expensive will hurt those for whom €20 in new taxes, say, is the difference between flying and staying home
Michael O’Leary of Ryanair Holdings is an unlikely spokesperson for how aviation can avoid killing the planet. The budget travel evangelist has delighted in disparaging “eco-warriors” and casting doubt on climate science. But as chair of the European trade association Airlines for Europe (A4E), he is now front and centre of the effort to persuade governments not to impose new climate taxes on the industry. It’s not going well.
This week, the European Commission’s president Ursula von der Leyen unveiled a plan to make the continent carbon-neutral by 2050. Her “green deal” is still thin on detail, but it’s already prompted plenty of criticism — from the green groups who say it doesn’t go far enough to the big polluters who fear it will harm their competitiveness, such as coal-dependent Poland and the airlines...
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