EcoDemonstrator debut

Etihad Dreamliner enters commercial service

Transport Minister Jean-Baptise Djebbari said the measures would have a disastrous impact on the industry and that “we shouldn’t travel less but make it so that air travel creates less emissions and is less polluting”.

Alexandre de Juniac, CEO and Director General of IATA, also responded to the news:

“This proposal cannot be taken seriously. It is not the time to add €6 billion and 150,000 lost jobs to the economic destruction already being levelled on the French aviation sector by COVID-19. And it will all but eliminate the 160,000 jobs that the government is trying to create with €100 billion in its economic re-launch plan. In this time of crisis, we need coherent policies that will save jobs not policies that will destroy them.”

IATA is also concerned that a unilateral approach to reducing aviation’s emissions could compromise the progress that is already being made globally.

De Juniac added: “If France imposes this debilitating unilateral national tax it could jeopardise CORSIA, an international scheme that will mitigate a billion tonnes of carbon emissions. The net environmental impact of the CCC proposal will be horrendous if doing so gives large emitters or developing nations an excuse not to support CORSIA.”

What has been decided?

Nothing as of yet. France’s Transport Minister is quoted in Le Monde as stating that the proposals will be debated in parliament at the start of 2021.