A busy start to the New Year

16th January, 2012

With AEF closed over the Christmas break, this update covers four weeks. The office has been busy since the New Year, with the first meeting of our Executive Council for 2012, and a visit from DfT to discuss both the launch of aviation’s inclusion in the EU ETS and progress at ICAO on developing CO2 performance standards for new aircraft.

Just before Christmas the European Court of Justice announced its verdict that the extension of the EU ETS to journeys outside Europe is fully compliant with international law, and together with other NGOs who have intervened in the legal challenge against the scheme, AEF provided press comment the same day. With airlines looking to increase ticket prices by a few pounds to cover compliance costs, industry campaigning against the forthcoming increase in APD rates has continued, and Tim gave a television interview for BBC World on the extent of tax breaks from which the industry currently benefits.

We also responded to media reporting on the CAA’s view on runway capacity in the South East. The CAA’s role has been under review in recent years and it has recently begun setting out its views on a number of aviation policy issues, publishing a series of ‘insight notes’, including one specifically addressing how the Government should address the environmental impacts of air travel, as well as a consultation on its own future environmental role, and we have been preparing initial comment on these for our website.

Finally, we have been working on a detailed analysis of the Government’s air passenger forecasts, published in August, which are critical to its forthcoming aviation policy.