IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani was scathing about the British government's introduction of the environmentally-inspired Air Passenger Duty (APD) to raise GBP2.5 billion (US$4.1 billion) annually.

"The UK is a case in point of a government detached from reality," said Mr Bisignani. "The global economic crisis makes cost reduction a matter of survival," he said in the IATA regular air traffic report.

"They have it all wrong. Taxes won't reduce emissions. And making travel more expensive will not stimulate the economy," he said, noting that the GBP2.5 billion APD it gains is completely disproportionate to the GBP572 million that it would cost to offset the entire carbon footprint of UK aviation.

"Charging travellers over four times for their emissions makes absolutely no sense. Instead of raising taxes, the UK government should get behind the aviation industry's targets to improve fuel efficiency by an average of 1.5 per cent annually to 2020, stabilising emissions from 2020 with carbon neutral growth and cutting net emissions in half by 2050 compared to 2005 levels," said Mr Bisignani.