Scottish airports apply pressure over APD
Scotland’s largest airports have made a joint submission to the Smith Commission calling for Air Passenger Duty to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports say APD costs Scotland over two million passengers a year.
A previous report commissioned by the airports warned that by 2016 APD will cost the Scottish economy up to £210 million in lost tourism spend a year.
Gordon Dewar, chief executive of Edinburgh Airport, said: "Scotland’s airports unanimously agree that air passenger duty is hugely damaging to our industry. We’ve argued long and hard for its reduction or abolition and have been ignored but now the evidence for its devolution to Scotland speaks for itself."
He said Ryanair has already committed to delivering over one million new passengers if APD is abolished.
"It’s obvious that airlines support our argument," said Dewar.
"They’re already indicating the size of the prize that’s just beyond our grasp.
"Following a year of unprecedented success and attention for Scotland it would be foolish not to harness this opportunity to deliver a tremendous boost to our country’s tourism industry. We shouldn’t wait for another two years of negotiations to end when we have the opportunity to devolve APD to Scotland now and have immediate control over its reduction and future abolition."
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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