Willie Walsh has taken to the pulpit again to attack a democratically elected government's tax position which he claims will weaken the economy of Germany and halt the development of decarbonization.
As the Director General of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Walsh sharply criticized the increase in German aviation taxes which have recently gone up.
The outspoken industry veteran said: “When Germany’s economic performance is anaemic at best, denting its competitiveness with more taxes on aviation is policy madness. The government should be prioritizing measures to improve Germany’s competitive position and encouraging trade and travel. Instead, they have gone for a short-term cash grab which can only damage the economy’s long-term growth,"
IATA warned that the tax increase imposed by Germany will hamper the industry’s efforts to decarbonize. Aviation has a goal of reaching net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050 and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) are vital to this effort. The German government coalition agreement originally stated that revenues from aviation taxes would directly fund the production of SAF, but IATA claims this commitment has been broken.
Continuing the attack, Walsh said: "The German government appears to have an unhealthy obsession with aviation taxes. On top of increasing the passenger tax, it is also in favour of a European jet fuel tax which will make it even more expensive to do business in Germany or for families to go on holiday. Our survey of air travellers in Germany shows deep scepticism about government claims for ‘green taxes’. 75% agreed with the statement “Taxation is not the way to make aviation sustainable” and 72% agreed that “Green taxes are just government greenwashing”. Time and again, we see taxation that was supposed to help the industry decarbonize be stolen and then lost in the general budget. And money taken out of the industry means that it has less money to invest in other decarbonization measures,”.