27 March 2009

Ã¢â¬ËœUK air tax should be binnedÃ¢â¬â¢

The UK is being urged to take a lead from the Dutch government and scrap Air Passenger Duty.

The call came from ABTA which claimed that as the UK enters a severe recession APD will "exacerbate the problems already being encountered by the aviation and tourist industries with significant falls in passenger numbers".

The announcement by the Dutch government (as previously reported by TravelMole) that it plans to scrap its airport tax as part of its economic support measures will have the added effect of encouraging airlines to bypass the UK and re-route to Dutch airports with further damage to the UK’s economy, ABTA claims.

But Flybe doubted that the UK government would follow the Dutch lead and scrap APD and instead called for a planned rise in the tax this autumn to be abandoned.

The airline has written to Chancellor Alastair Darling calling on him to postpone the proposed APD rise planned for November.

Chief commercial officer Mike Rutter said: "Flybe is not innocent enough to think that the UK government will follow the Dutch lead and abolish APD but we certainly think there is a case for them to put on ice the planned November rise in APD.

"Such a move would be a tangible stimulus to the British economy and send out a very clear message that the government cares about industries other than just the banking sector".

ABTA accused the government of consistently ignoring warnings about the damage caused to the UK’s economy by the tax and has raised it to some of the highest levels in the world.

The association’s head of development Andy Cooper said: "The UK government must finally see sense and scrap or reduce Air Passenger Duty if we are to avoid significant damage to the UK’s aviation and tourist industries.

"The Dutch government’s proposal to bin their own aviation tax will greatly benefit their own economy with the added effect of yet more airlines giving up on over-taxed Britain and rerouting to the continent."

by Phil Davies

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Your Comments (4)

bin one pay somewhere else

mention any form of taxation and you will find 1000's of businessman and ordinary people who will demand that it should be scrapped (i hate council tax but it is here to stay)........if a tax is scrapped or lowered then you will pay for it in either a reduction in public services or tax will be raised elsewhere to cover the difference....noone will ever vote for tax rises or think that any form of taxation is fair (unless they are not paying it) it was ever thus

By andy brewer, Monday, March 30, 2009
comments

Thank the airlines for that. It is not much fun flying these days. It is almost like a cattle car or a jail

By John Brownlie, Monday, March 30, 2009
APT

Absolutely agree but it probably won't happen because we are dealing with politicians who generally don't understand the harsh realities of running a business, if they did, many of the the decisions made by Govenment would never have happened. Maybe I'm being naive but I tend to think that if we had serious business leaders making these kind of decisions, then it would be a fairer place, I might be wrong but it couldn't be any worse than the current shower who just lurch from one crisis and one controversy to the next!!

By Keith Standen, Friday, March 27, 2009
APT

Absolutely agree but it probably won't happen because we are dealing with politicians who generally don't understand the harsh realities of running a business, if they did, many of the the decisions made by Government would never have happened. Maybe I'm being naive but I tend to think that if we had serious business leaders making these kind of decisions, then it would be a fairer place, I might be wrong but it couldn't be any worse than the current shower who just lurch from one crisis and one controversy to the next!!

By Karl Hendrie, Friday, March 27, 2009