A third of families feel benefit of APD changes
A third of families believe flying is more affordable following the abolition of child Air Passenger Duty, but most have not noticed a difference.
As the October half term approaches, ABTA has released the findings of a study which found 34% of people with children under five and 31% of people with children over five said they feel it’s made holidays more affordable.
But 10% of people with children under five said they disagreed that holidays were now more affordable, and 56% were neutral.
For families with children over five, 9% said they disagreed and 51% were neutral.
A spokeswoman for ABTA said some families may not yet have seen the impact of the changes, which came into force in May this year.
APD was cut on economy flights for children under 12 on May 1 and in March 2016 this will be extended to children under 16.
In April, APD reform saw the abolition of the more expensive long haul APD Bands C and D, which made it cheaper to fly to destinations such as the Caribbean, India and China.
"The vast majority of respondents will have also taken short haul trips where the difference will be less marked," added the spokeswoman. "Not all families will take an overseas holiday too."
The research was conducted among 2003 consumers by Arkenford, which specialises in tourism and leisure market research.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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