Increasing passenger tax de-democratises air travel: Boeing

Increasing air passenger taxes as a means to reduce carbon emissions de-democratises air travel and is an ineffective tool unless they are also tied into a carbon offsetting programme, said, Sean Newsum, director of environmental strategy for Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes.  Germany will increase short-haul flight passenger departure tax by 75 percent in April this year, with other European governments also mulling similar proposals. However, responding to a question from Airline Economics at a press briefing in London on January 31, Newsum said that the main impact of such moves would be to reduce the ability of less-well off passengers to travel, rather