Airline emissions fee plan ‘disastrous’

EU POLITICIANS are being urged to halt EU plans to charge airlines for greenhouse gas emissions, which Aer Lingus says could result is an additional cost of €205m being levied on their passengers.

In a letter to Irish MEPs, the chief executive of Aer Lingus, Dermot Mannion, has highlighted what he terms “the potentially disastrous effects on the Irish travelling public” of the draft EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) proposals.

“For Aer Lingus, we estimate the net cost of ETS will be €39m in 2012 and this could jump to over €205m in the period 2013 to 2016.