Meeting with politicians and Government officials, and advising on climate change

21st May, 2012

Our work in the past two weeks has included meeting with both politicians and Government officials. Cait met with a South East MEP to discuss proposed changes to noise legislation at EU level as part of the Airports Package, as well as UK aviation policy likely to affect the South East region. Nic represented AEF at a parliamentary event to consider recent proposals for expansion at Luton Airport. And Tim attended a DfT meeting in preparation for the Government’s red tape challenge which seeks to cut unnecessary regulation.

A pro-aviation group of MPs, the All-Party Parliamentary Aviation Group, has recently been consulting on the impact of Air Passenger Duty on UK competitiveness, with support from Fair Tax on Flying, an industry group lobbying for lower aviation tax. AEF has submitted a written response, which notes that the sector in fact pays very little tax, being exempt from both fuel tax and VAT, and that APD at its current rate has very little impact on travel choice.

We also updated the website with an article on some recent research on air pollution from aviation  and responded to queries from two national environmental organisations about aviation and climate change.