Budget airline Ryanair (FR/RYR) has condemned an aviation tax due to be introduced across the Netherlands in 2021 as it claims it amounts “further state aid to KLM”
The National Aviation Tax is a levy that will be applied to passengers direct flights to the Netherlands but connecting flights and infants under 2 years old will be exempt. The tax will be charged at a flat-rate of €7 per departing passenger.
Ryanair claims that by exempting passengers who connect at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport the tax “rewards KLM’s environmental inefficiency, yet penalises Dutch passengers choosing Ryanair, Europe’s greenest cleanest airline rewards KLM’s environmental inefficiency, yet penalises Dutch passengers choosing Ryanair, Europe’s greenest cleanest airline”
Ryanair says that its passengers already contribute to the environment by choosing to fly with Europe’s greenest, cleanest airline (according to a Brighter Planet report) and they already pay environmental taxes through both the EU’s ETS fees and Government taxes such as Air Passenger Duty in the UK.
Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said: “This Dutch Aviation Tax has nothing to do with the environment, it’s just another state subsidy to KLM. If the Dutch Government are serious about the environment then it should apply environmental taxes to the biggest polluter which is those passengers taking 2 connecting flights at Schiphol on older aircraft, and instead levy lower taxes on environmentally efficient airlines carrying passengers on direct flights on newer aircraft to/from the Netherlands”.
The airline says that its passengers will now be penalised again by the new Dutch tax, unlike KLM’s passengers who use the environmentally inefficient transfer passengers, who take at least to flights to reach their destination, will be exempt.
