Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce has today warned SNP and Green ministers not to cut the powerhouse region off from the world by hiking air departure tax (ADT).
Press reports suggest that the Scottish Government is considering such a move in a knee-jerk response to the failure to meet its own 2030 climate targets, which were abandoned last week.
The North-east economy has faced the perfect economic storm over the last decade with a downturn in the energy sector, the Covid pandemic and soaring costs of doing business.
AGCC has led calls for government to reduce the cost burden on the region’s businesses as they play a central role in leading Scotland and the UK towards net zero.
First Minister Humza Yousaf has stated his intention to transform the North-east of Scotland from a city known for its world class oil and gas sector, to the “Net Zero Capital of Europe”.
As a global energy city, Aberdeen International Airport has daily flights to a number of key European destinations, although direct Air France flights to Paris have not been reinstated following the pandemic.
There are also a number of critical domestic flights serving the energy and business sector, with several daily connections to London, Newcastle, Manchester and to the highlands and islands that also power our growing tourism and convention sector.
Meanwhile, rail connections between Aberdeen and the central belt and northwards have faced decades of underinvestment, with slow, unreliable services offering an unrealistic alternative to domestic flights.
'Let's rethink our focus as a nation...'
Commenting on developments, Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Russell Borthwick said:
“At a time when we’re putting in so much hard work to attract international investment to our region, unthinking proclamations like this can really scare the horses - it’s deeply unhelpful.
“We were promised a ‘new deal for business’ under this First Minister, but any supertax of this kind on business travel would fly in that face of that accord.
“Aberdeen has suffered chronic underinvestment in our travel infrastructure over decades. Rail services to the rest of Scotland are nowhere near as fast and reliable as they could be and are not a viable alternative for business travellers, for whom time is money. It takes over 7 hours to travel by train from London making it an unviable transport form for short business trips.
“Talk of exemptions for the Highlands and Islands would only put the Aberdeen region at a further unfair advantage.
“Let’s rethink our focus as a nation - let’s pioneer sustainable aviation fuels, let’s invest in 21st century rail infrastructure, let’s rollout renewable energy projects at scale, let’s do all of this and more. Instead of cutting off swathes of our population.
“But what we shouldn’t do is hammer business and leisure travellers with taxes on top of taxes, to provide a fig leaf for government failings on its approach to net zero.”