There is no way while Justine Greening is in charge of transport, we'll get a change in transport policy anyway.
Mrs Greening has never given me the impression that transport is her strong point, but I think it is clear a decision of this nature would come from the top down and if she didn't like it she could either step aside or hope she gets a promotion first.
As for Mr Yeo, I never took him too seriously after the back to basics lectures! Didn't realise he gave a child up for adoption too! Not wanting to moralise, but wasn't he the one dishing it out at the time?
Business interests include Eurotunnel, nothing aviation:
Yeo is chairman of Univent plc, Chairman of TMO Renewables and non-executive chairman of Eco City Vehicles plc and AFC Energy plc.
He writes articles for Golf Weekly and Country Life magazines and, occasionally, the Financial Times.
He occupies a seat on the board of Eurotunnel
So it is interesting in that he is saying this with a clear green interest, but I don't think Greenpeace will agree with him just yet!
There's as much chance as this changing, as APD being scrapped, despite we lose more money than it brings in!
Do you have a source for this? The antis love to trot out the £10bn "subsidy" myth, but aviation as a whole is still a net exporter of £s, just as it must also be in most northern European countries, and just as the ferries would have been before the advent of cheap package holidays.
My expectation would be that for each £10 you put on APD, that is more likely to put tourists off - and thus increase the defecit further, as they will choose other destinations, whereas it will have less effect on UK outbound, as people still want to get away.
Now as for BA & BHX / MAN v Germany, this comes up time and again, and it is just not relevant. Germany has a completely different population structure to the UK - many cities in the 1-5m bracket, no single city dominates. When was the last time AF operates serious long haul from the regions? (Yes, they have added some short haul routes recently, but that market is totally distorted by French labour laws which keep the likes of MOL out).