Mr. Michael O'Leary:

Rubbish. The argument that has been made by the other airlines has been made by using their political might. The American airlines get the State Department to say “We are not paying environmental taxes”, and the Russians say they will not pay, although the Russians are not flying, and the Chinese say they will not pay environmental taxes. This was tested in the European courts. Europe, if it has an environmental policy, is entirely free to tax flights on a departure basis. If an airline departs from a European airport or uplifts fuel at a European airport, it pays environmental tax on the same fair basis as everybody else. The legacy carriers, Lufthansa, Air France and KLM, argue, “You cannot make us pay tax on our long-haul flights because the Americans will not pay and, therefore, we would have a competitive disadvantage.”