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Cheap flights and EU politicians
August 29, 2003 12:00 AM
By Sarah Ludford MEP in The Times - Letters to the Editor
By Sarah Ludford MEP in The Times - Letters to the Editor
Air France (Ryanair flies into turbulence over France, Aug 27th) can't have it both ways.
Its excuse for cutting its London-Strasbourg route was the subsidy given to its rival Ryanair, now judged illegal. But the spokesman for the Air France operating subsidiary Britair says it may not resume the service even if that judgement is confirmed on appeal since it 'might find it profitable to serve other routes'.
European taxpayers would certainly find it profitable to end their £100 million a year subsidy of the ludicrous travelling circus that sees MEPs decamp unwillingly once a month from Brussels to Strasbourg as a result of an unholy and unworthy deal between EU governments. We should shame our Government into withdrawing its support for this expensive and shabby arrangement during the forthcoming intergovernmental conference on an EU constitution, thus freeing the European Parliament to confirm a permanent Brussels seat.
A high-speed rail link to Strasbourg (long promised, never delivered) would liberate us from the farce that struggling there has become. In the meantime there is as much need for airline competition on the Strasbourg route as any other. But this has to be on the basis that aviation covers its real costs, both economic and environmental. We customers have to understand that our 'cheap' flight may create all kinds of expenses for us, as residents, through noise and air pollution, and as citizens, through tax breaks and other handouts to the industry.
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