16
April 2013, Brussels – The European Low Fares Airline Association
(ELFAA)
today
deplores the vote in the plenary of the European Parliament to
support
the
proposed derogation from compliance with EU Emissions Trading Scheme
(ETS)
for flights to and from non-EU airports.
The
exemption of more than 80% of EU aviation emissions of CO2 from
inclusion in
the EU
ETS renders the inclusion of aviation totally ineffective
environmentally, yet
imposes
an unfair burden on intra-EU operators and passengers.
The
derogation flies in the face of the CJEU ruling, rejecting the legal
challenge to the
inclusion
of extra EU flights in EU ETS. The Advocate General’s opinion
clearly
rejected
any exemption of flights to and from the EU on the grounds that this
would
be
discriminatory, with “long-haul flights being treated more
favourably than shorthaul flights”.
ELFAA
supported EU ETS subject to its environmental effectiveness and will
now
bring
a formal legal challenge to the flawed derogation. Meanwhile we urge
the
European
Council to reject this proposal which is environmentally ineffective,
discriminatory
and distortive of competition to the detriment of passengers
travelling within the EU.
About
ELFAA
ELFAA
represents the fastest-growing European airline sector. Its members
carry over 200 million passengers a year and account for over 43% of
scheduled intra-European traffic.
Today,
ELFAA comprises 10 airline members which include: easyJet, Flybe,
Jet2.com, Norwegian, Ryanair, SverigeFlyg, transavia.com, Volotea,
vueling and Wizz Air.
ELFAA’s
primary objective is to ensure that European policy and legislation
promote free and equal competition to enable the continued growth and
development of low fares into the future, thereby allowing a greater
number of people to travel by air.
