Mr. Willie Walsh:

I would not necessarily agree that this measure will drive traffic to other airports in the Netherlands. When issues like this have happened before, we have seen that it tends to drive traffic away from the country. I appreciate the desire to see more balanced growth around the regions, and I believe it is something the Government should look at. Certainly, in terms of an aviation policy there is scope to look at that. Trying to create a situation where people are forced to fly to a destination because there is limited capacity at the destination they want to travel to, does not necessarily mean that people will fly there. In 2008, for example, when the Dutch introduced a tax in an effort to raise revenues, it actually drove traffic away from the Netherlands and into neighbouring countries where the tax did not exist. We need to be careful, when we introduce policies like this, that we think through fully the impact it will have.

Our assessment of the measures being taken by the Government in the Netherlands is that it is using a very blunt instrument. I do not believe they have thought it through carefully. They are still trying to work out how they will implement the policy. Had they considered all of the issues properly, they would have been able to communicate very clearly to everybody how this was going to work. The latest update, which I received early this morning, is still very vague on the ambition other than to reduce the number of flights operating into Schiphol and hope that it reduces noise and CO2. I personally do not believe it is going to have the impact they are aiming for. There is still a lot of work they need to do. Looking at these issues properly and working through all of the options is the sensible thing to do.