Airlines call for end to APD ‘nonsense’ as Budget approaches
Airlines have voiced their growing anger over Air Passenger Duty as the industry awaits the Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget announcement on Wednesday.
The Board of Airline Representatives in the UK (BAR UK) says airlines are losing confidence in the Government, fast.
Chief executive Dale Keller said the Government "seems single-minded in its desire to clip the wings of an industry that continues to be one of our remaining success stories and which funds its own infrastructure".
"Does the UK really need, or deserve, the highest aviation tax in the world by a considerable margin?" he said.
"Perhaps airlines have been so successful in delivering an efficient and more sophisticated travelling experience that the Chancellor’s perception is that of an industry generating fat margins and huge profits.
"The real problem is that APD started out as a small tax with supposed environmental credentials but has grown into a monster that is more ‘user pays twice’ than ‘user pays’. It’s time to end this nonsense."
As a result of the industry’s Fair Tax on Flying campaign, supported by BARUK, 200,000 people wrote to their local MPs in 2012 calling for the Treasury to undertake a review into the economic impacts of APD.
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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