Per plane levy gets mixed reaction
Thursday, 04 Jun, 2010
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Skyscanner’s chief executive officer has hit out at the new coalition government’s plans to adopt a per plane tax.
The Con/Lib government has said it will replace the APD with the per plane levy despite fears that this could result in passengers paying even more.
Gareth Williams said: “Both APD and per plane levy schemes are classified by the government as a green levy to discourage long haul flights, APD taxation specifically by putting a financial burden on passengers.
“As these taxes are never specifically ring fenced for investment in environmental or carbon offsetting initiatives, it could be perceived that they are simply a revenue generating device. Airlines are already struggling to deal with record fuel prices, strikes and the recent set back presented by the volcano.
"By raising the cost of flying aircraft to and from the United Kingdom, the government may risk threatening the health of the airline industry.
“If the tax changes to a per plane levy go ahead, ultimately the airlines will still need to manage this cost so it will still inadvertently be passed on to passengers.”
However, TUI’s managing director Dermot Blastland said today (Thursday) that he was in favour of the per plane tax.
He told ABTA’s Travel Matters briefing in Westminster: “We also applaud the proposal to extend the tax to all aircraft movements. If applied sensibly this will encourage both the move to more fuel efficient aircraft and higher load factors on the aircraft that do fly. At the same time though, we would urge the Government not to use the reform as an opportunity to tax the aviation industry more heavily than is already the case.”
By Dinah Hatch
Dinah
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