The travel industry needs to cut capacity and prepare itself for an environment tax, a panel of experts warned at yesterday’s Travelmole debate.
AITO member and ABTA Board director Noel Josephides said events were closing in on the industry.
“I don’t think we can carry on flying all over the world for nothing. They (the government) will come down on us like a tonne of bricks. We cannot continue with the capacity we have,” he warned.
“The academics are now involved and they are far more powerful than us. A tax is inevitable. We are going to have to take some pain.”
He said the rapid growth of the low-cost airlines means they now fly millions of empty seats.
“And surely it’s better to sell one seat at £100 than five at £20,” he said.
But Flybe leisure sales manager David Paterson said low-cost carriers needed to continually expand their networks in order to survive.
Cadogan Holidays managing director Tom Allen said the industry’s concern for the environment was being driven by its own conscience, not due to demand from customers.
He said offering customers the option to offset carbon emissions would not sell one extra holiday. “We’re not driven by the public at all,” he said.
By Bev Fearis
