After the ecotax on plane tickets, the other measure which is prepared for aviation

Announced this Tuesday by the Minister of Transport, Élisabeth Borne, the project to set up, from 2020, an ecotax of 1.5 euro at 18 euros on plane tickets from France caused the anger of air carriers andFrench airports, all wind up against this umpteenth tax on aviation which degrades their competitiveness.But they haven't finished lamenting.This tax is only the beginning of a structural process of increase in air transport costs to accentuate the contribution of this sector - which represents 2% of global CO2 emissions - to the fight against global warming.

Obligation to use biofuels - more dear- by 2021?

Another measure is indeed under study in France for 2021, or even from 2020 according to some: that of obliging airlines to incorporate a certain percentage of biofuels.Two to five times more expensive than kerosene, they will inevitably result in an increase in the cost of air transportation.This was indicated on June 26 Anne-Florie Coron, sub-director of supply security and new energy products to the Directorate General of Energy and Climate of the Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition, during a biofuels conference organized by IFP Energies Nouvelles.

Questioned by the tribune as an aside, Anne-Florie Coron explained that the rate would be 0.5% in the first year with the idea of gradually increasing.

The conditions for the emergence of a production sector

A few days earlier, Élisabeth Borne, also mentioned this subject in front of some journalists.The idea is to create an aviation biofuels market to be able to initiate the implementation of a production sector necessary to develop biofuels consumption in air transport.Contacted this Wednesday, July 10, the Ministry of Ecological Transition explains that, "for the moment, the last inter -ministerial meetings on the 2020 finance bill have not planned to include in the bill an obligation to'Incorporation of biofuels "."However, the government is still working to promote the incorporation of biofuels into the air to gradually achieve the targets of 2% in 2025 and 5% in 2030", it is said.

Le secteur prêt à dépasser les objectifs biocarburants ?Not sure...

However, corresponding to the objectives of the roadmap developed so far, these objectives are deemed "insufficient" by Élisabeth Borne, who considers that the sector is ready to have a larger share ".Not sure...Given the prices of biofuels, airlines are afraid on the contrary.

An obligation of incorporation would give pride of place to the oil tankers, they believe.To this measure described as "punitive", some companies are militating rather for an incentive mechanism, as is case in Los Angeles or Amsterdam.

Read also: France plans to oblige airlines to use biofuels

It remains to be known whether the oil tankers (total in particular) will be able to produce second generation desbiocariators (who do not come to compete with agricultural land) as required by airlines.

Beginning of the World Plan for Compensation for Carbon emissions

This ecotax and the additional cost generated by the use of biofuels will be added to the various contributions already in place to fight against global warming or already acted for an implementation of.

As a reminder, in fact, French airlines, like their European competitors, are already participating in the emission permit exchange system imposed by Brussels in 2012 for intra-European flights.Deferred so far (5 to 7 euros per tonne), the carbon price has started to increase in 2018, to be around 25 euros today.In addition, they will participate in 2020 in the global CO2 emissions compensation system which aims to neutralize emissions between 2020 and 2035 before considering reducing them by half by 2050 compared to 2005.

To keep their commitment, the carriers will compensate for carbon dioxide emissions which will exceed the level of 2020 by funding reforestation programs, processing factories into powerful sites at the energy level, etc..For Air France-KLM, the additional cost should amount to 150 million euros in 2025.

And to all this, could also be added a taxation of airlines at European level, as France asked after refusing to introduce a tax on kerosene in France.

In the end, put end to end (it will also be necessary to add the future tax for CDG Express), all these measures will be quantified in hundreds of millions of euros for a company like Air France (for example, the additional cost of the only eco -tax,Announced yesterday, will amount to 60 million euros per year).

Some low-cost like Ryanair will be strongly affected

This increase in the cost of air transport to France cannot be absorbed by airlines and will therefore result in an increase in air transportation price.

If all operators will be impacted, some low-cost will be particularly affected.These are those that have a large share of their activity based on secondary airports and who live on a low -cost model.

This is obviously the case of Ryanair, even if the Irish company has started to position itself in recent years on main airports.Ryanair has indeed been all of its marketing on derisory prices and must therefore ensure that the price difference remains significant with its competitors installed on large airports.Otherwise what good, for a Parisian, go to Beauvais rather than in Orly or Roissy.

Furthermore, too much increase the prices would deprive Ryanair from another clientele: the one who would simply not travel (or less) without the very low prices of the.

As for the low-cost installed on large airports, like Easyjet, they will be less affected.Their prices, even if they increase, will always remain more attractive than those of traditional companies.This will allow these low-cost companies to benefit from the arrival of customers who were traveling hitherto conventional companies hitherto.These new customers will compensate for passengers who will no longer be able to travel by plane because of a price that has become prohibitive.As for conventional companies, they will have to be imagined to retain their customers and continue to lower their costs (to absorb part of the additional cost) if they want to avoid losing too many passengers.

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