Alors que le gouvernement français veut surtaxer les billets d'avion prétendûment pour aider les pays pauvres, il n'est pas inutile, comme le fait ce blog consacré à l'aviation, de rappeler le rôle extrêmement bénéfique joué par les compagnies LowCost dans la création de nouvelles opportunités économiques, notamment dans les régions les plus pauvres d'Europe:
Ryanair began flying to Carcassonne in 1998. In July this year the airport handled 90,000 visitors, up from a mere 4,000 monthly visits six years ago. Carcassonne's chamber of commerce estimates the increased activity at the airport has generated 3,049 jobs in L'Aude, a region of 310,000 inhabitants, and created 374m (£256m) in extra economic activity.
(...)
Secondly, Euro LCCs have enabled cross-European mobility. (...) just as significant are migrants from poorer European regions to the west. Ryanair has credited "Polish Plumbers" (Eastern European emigres into the UK) for the success of its Polish flights, but it must also be true that the availability of cheap flights has reduced the barriers to Poles seeking higher wages in the UK (France and Germany are unwisely hiding behind temporary immigration barriers and thus denying themselves the benefits of Eastern European immigration).
Other examples: Brits are apparently flying to Poland for cheap dental work, while Polish dentists are being imported into the UK to fill open positions. The Latvian countryside is being depopulated as Lats emigrate to Western Europe for better wages -- picking mushroooms in Ireland being one choice (Ireland now imports laborers, rather than the other way around).
Leçon à méditer pour Jacques Chirac : pour faciliter les transferts de richesse vers les habitants des pays moins riches, il faut abaisser le coût du transport, et non l'augmenter en créant des taxes dont le dérisoire produit ne finira jamais dans les bonnes poches.
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