Brussels, 16/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - As of Tuesday 17 January, flights booked with the low-cost airline Ryanair will cost an extra €0.25, which the Irish company claims is due to the carbon tax brought in by the EU. Since 1 January, aviation has had to comply with the European directive on trading in CO2 emissions credits (ETS), with airlines having been “given” 85% of their quotas; they will have to buy the rest of their emissions at auction. Ryanair claims that this will cost it between €15 and 20 million this year, and has estimated that the passengers will end up bearing these costs. This strategy is similar to those adopted by other airlines, such as Lufthansa and Air France-KLM. The head of communication for Ryanair, Stephen McNamara, justified the decision, arguing that the company “does not believe that European aviation should be included in the ETS scheme since it accounts for less than 2% to be EU's CO2 emissions (…). This new ETS tax is the latest in a long line of cost increases imposed on Europe's air passengers by the European Union, which reduces the competitiveness of EU air transport with yet another misguided 'environmental' tax which does nothing for the environment but penalises EU consumers and families.” (MD/transl.fl)