Government says 'little or no impact on aviation' from carbon tax

The Minister for (amongst other things) Tourism, Senator Nick Sherry, told the Aviation Outlook Summit in Sydney today that the industry had nothing to fear from the recently announced carbon tax.

He said, in fact, that the ultimate result would be no more than a fare increase of $2 a ticket; and that there would be "little or no impact on aviation into and out of Australia".

"Some of the claims being made, particularly in the travel and airline sector, are grossly exaggerated. For the aviation industry and its millions of customers the estimated impact of pricing carbon from 1 July next year, on domestic airfares, is expected to average $2 a ticket...

"Just to put that issue in perspective... the best estimates and predictions of Treasury and the Transport Department is that the pricing of carbon will little or no impact on the aviation sector at all, in and out of Australia. The forecasts on visitor numbers in and out of Australia and tourism growth are not expected to change at all...

"The other important issue in this debate is, of course, that Qantas supports a carbon price...

"Also businesses are going to be buying aircraft... and they need certainty to support that investment."

Well, the volume of disquiet voiced in the last couple of weeks by sectors of the aviation industry leads us to feel that the Minister's confidence in little impact might be slightly out of touch with the reality.

But feel free to add your own perspective below...