Source: {Business} Edition: Country: UK Date: Wednesday 22, January 2020 Page: 8 Area: 145 sq. cm Circulation: ABC 317817 Daily Ad data: page rate £46,000.00, scc rate £214.00 Phone: 020 7931 2000 Keyword: Easyjet

Handouts to airlines are out of order, says easyJet boss By Oliver Gill

THE boss of easyJet has demanded clarity over the rescue of and EasyJet said late last year it would off- warned that ministers must not hand set all its fuel, claiming to be Europe’s out favours to individual airlines. first carbon-neutral airline. Johan Lundgren said his firm is talk- Mr Lundgren made the comments as ing with the Government on a planned easyJet impressed the City by saying overhaul of the controversial air pas- traditional winter losses would be senger duty (APD) regime, which costs lower than expected, helped by re- it tens of millions of pounds a year. duced competition after the collapse of Flybe was last week given a lifeline Thomas Cook last autumn. This drove by the state, which let it delay payment revenue per seat – a key industry met- of a £10m APD bill amid fears the re- ric – higher by 8.8pc at easyJet. gional airline might go bust. The tax Revenue rose 10pc to £1.4bn. The regime, which costs up to £26 per pas- airline was helped by raising prices for senger, is now being reviewed. add-ons at times of high demand. Rivals such as owner Mr Lundgren said: “We are doing IAG and Ryanair cried foul, saying the more [pricing] dynamics on the pricing deal was an unfair market intervention of allocated seats and also the bag pric- and pointing out Flybe is part-owned ing. Whereas previously this has been by billionaire Sir Richard Branson. fixed.” He added that the firm’s fledg- Mr Lundgren said: “We want to get ling easyJet Holidays business is ex- absolute clarity about what is being pected to at least break even for 2020. suggested. We will not accept any fa- Shares rose 4.6pc to close at £15.17 vours being handed to a single com- yesterday. pany.” He reiterated support for APD changes. Analysis shows that easyJet would be the biggest beneficiary of a 9.8m cut in the levy. In 2019, its domestic seat capacity was 9.8m, ahead of sec- ond-placed Flybe with 8.3m seats. Domestic seating capacity of easyJet APD was introduced in 1994, to put flights last year, the largest; troubled Flybe money back into the aviation industry was next-largest, with 8.3m seats via infrastructure upgrades. In the past decade, increases in the tax were justi- fied by environmental concerns.

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