Corendon founder: Dutch coalition plan to raise taxes on longer flights is absurd

Vacation provider Corendon cannot understand the reasoning behind the new political coalition's plans to slap higher taxes on airline tickets when a flight will cover longer distances. Taking a plane for relatively short distances is actually a major environmental problem, but the potential next Dutch Cabinet would be incentivizing shorter flights, said Corendon founder and majority shareholder Atilay Uslu.

He said he would prefer it if there were simply no longer flights of under 500 kilometers. “What I don’t understand, why the long distance? Why not the short distances? Just abolish flying up to 500 kilometers,” he said on the TV program WNL Op Zondag.

He also referred to passenger flights between Schiphol and Brussels every day. Uslu also said that all of the coalition's proposed measures threaten to make holidays too expensive for “the hard-working citizen," meaning that only “the elite” will be able to afford them.

The parties who have announced a coalition, PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB, wrote in their outline agreement that the flight tax must be increased for flights over longer distances. This affects Corendon, which, for example, offers holidays on Curaçao and Bonaire. The potential cost of the increased tax is not yet known.

Corendon CEO Gunay Uslu, Atilay’s sister, also said the aviation sector needs to become more sustainable. “Flying is a reality, and flying emissions are also a reality. We have to become more sustainable," she said.

"You have to take that into account and we have to do that together."