AP

VISTA VISAS: The old town of Chur, Switzerland, is in the heart of the Swiss Alps and is less than two hours from Zurich airport. It has been suggested that EU countries make visa applications easier to attract tourists from the southern hemisphere and boost business for airlines having to pay exorbitant carbon taxes.

SAA, like most other airlines outside Europe, protested against being compelled to pay into the new EU carbon emissions trading scheme from the beginning of this year. However, the company is doing so rather than incur fines or risk being barred from European airports

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The scheme was imposed despite calls from the International Air Transport Association to avoid regional measures but join in a worldwide effort to find effective ways of reducing pollution by greenhouse gases. Under the scheme airlines are having to pay for emissions by their aircraft during the entire flight to Europe and not only in European air space, with the money going to EU governments.

It penalises SAA and other airlines in the southern hemisphere because of the distance they fly to reach Europe. But, with China expected to replace the US as the world’s largest economy in a few years, the Chinese government’s decision this week to forbid any of its airlines to pay into the scheme may be a deciding factor in putting an end to it.

It was hoped that the introduction of the scheme might cause the UK government to drop or reduce its high airline passenger departure tax, which was also introduced originally as a measure aimed at reducing pollution by discouraging “unnecessary flying”, but which in fact increases revenue from taxes. But the tax has not been withdrawn or reduced despite pressure from airlines and the UK tourism industry.

However, Tom Jenkins, executive director of the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA), believes there is a better chance of persuading the UK government to reduce the high cost of entry visas and make them less troublesome to obtain.

He told the authoritative London-based An Executive Review of Business Travel that, according to his association members, the UK is the worst country in Europe for handling visa applications. Applicants have to submit “a ream of personal documentation on different areas of their lives”, travel to a visa centre to be questioned on why they want to visit the UK and pay £76 (about R1 000) each “with a one in 10 chance of having the application rejected”.

The reason he believes this process might be made easier is that, despite the high cost of the visas, in some cases the government is losing money in issuing them. He suggests that this “incompetence”, and the fact that more than 20 percent of would-be tourists become discouraged and give up the idea of visiting Europe, compared with the departure tax which brings in money for the government, might enable the tourism industry to “win the argument on visas”.

Daylight flights

South Africans have, for years, been resistant to flying to or from Europe by daylight, with most of us preferring to spend a night flying in order to have an extra day overseas. And if we are flying business class, with lie-flat beds and snacks available all night, a night flight can be positively pleasant.

This is no problem for foreign airlines as far as flights to Europe or the UK are concerned because the aircraft can be used on short haul regional flights after carrying passengers from here, and still be ready to take off for SA again in the evening.

But they lose money on keeping an aircraft parked at an SA airport all day after arriving here. Edelweiss Air, which is providing a service between Zurich and Cape Town this summer, began daylight flights to SA on Mondays and Fridays, returning the same night.

But, from last week, the daylight flight to SA on Mondays has been changed to a night flight, although they still have a daylight flight on Fridays. Karin Duncker, spokeswoman for Edelweiss, explained the decision had been taken because some passengers preferred daylight flights and some night flights. It had been found that the majority preferred a night flight on Mondays, giving them an extra day in Zurich.

However, some South Africans have found that a daylight flight arriving in early evening rather than in the morning rush hour has a lot to recommend it.

The two British Airways flights from Cape Town to London every day in the summer months leave here at 8am and arrive at Heathrow at 5.45pm although the return flights to SA are overnight. - Weekend Argus

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