The recent agreement of the Council and Parliament of Europe on aviation fuel taxes in Europe has put airlines on a war footing. The political agreement reached, which still requires formalization by the member countries, would imply revising the rules of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) with regard to the Emissions Trading System (ETS).
If this revision is applied, the exception to green taxation on flights from the Canary Islands to the rest of Spanish territory would be maintained until 2030 due to its outermost character, but not on flights connecting the archipelago with the rest of the countries of the European Union or third countries.
This has caused alarm in the airline sector. The Airline Association (ALA) warned this Monday that the Canary Islands could lose one million tourists a year and more than 40,000 jobs if flights connecting the islands with the rest of the European Union are not exempt from the new European green tax on kerosene. Its president, Javier Gándara, has demanded that the Spanish Government defend the exclusion of the Canary Islands from the application of the ETS in the EU and has asked the regional president, Ángel Víctor Torres, to support this exception of the also known green tax together with the air sector to protect the tourism of the islands.
ALA justifies these figures in a recent study published by the Deloitte consultancy, according to which the application of the ETS in the Canary Islands would cause the loss of one million tourists and 42,000 jobs in 2030 as a result of the increased cost of their trip to the islands. "If the Government does not reverse this situation, it may put at risk the main economic base of the Canary Islands, its tourism. The Canary Islands will lose competitiveness for European tourists who could choose other destinations," said the highest representative of ALA.
Canary Islands values the European position
Faced with the criticisms and warnings from the aviation sector, the regional government values that Europe has opted for an intermediate path regarding the air tax, from which it has excluded the Outermost Regions (ORs) in their connections with the continent and in flights between islands, compared to the initial claim that there would be a green tax on all trips.
In statements to EFE, a spokesman for the Canarian executive points out that the future involves operating with sustainable fuels, which can be financed by public administrations, so he has encouraged airlines to embrace the future.
"It is understandable that airlines are concerned because access to sustainable fuels must be guaranteed and this measure forces them to introduce them sooner, but the truth is that resources are contemplated so that this does not involve additional costs and everything is very aligned with promoting sustainable aviation", indicate the Government sources, which are committed to the Canary Islands being an operations center for green fuels.
From the point of view of tourist competitiveness, these sources add, "the worst thing that can happen is that tickets become more expensive due to the increase in the cost of fuel", which would reduce the possibility of tourists with greater purchasing power coming, but "it is also true that the sustainability factor is increasingly important when deciding on the destination".
Thus, the regional government continues to be optimistic about the possibility of continuing to consolidate the Canary Islands as an airport hub and about the advantages of responding to concerns about sustainability, very present in some European tourist markets, such as the German market.
