Scottish APD changes boost interest in long-haul flights
Flight search and travel deals platform Cheapflights has seen a surge in searches for long-haul flights from Scotland since the Scottish government announced changes to APD in June.
Holyrood voted on June 20 to replace APD with a devolved Air Departure Tax (ADT) from April 2018 with calls for it to be half the UK rate and for the tax to be scrapped altogether in the near future.
The change will see passengers using Scottish airports pay less tax than those flying long haul from England and Wales.
Between June 20 and July 4 2017, Cheapflights reports the greatest growth in searches for flights from Glasgow to Philadelphia, recording up to a fourfold increase in search demand.
Rises of up to 178% and 137% were seen for searches from Glasgow to Las Vegas and Orlando respectively.
Searches to New York were up as much as 84% and 75% from Glasgow and Edinburgh respectively.
Overall, searches for long haul destinations served by flights from Scotland more than doubled at times, with increases in searches of up to 109% since the tax change was announced.
Cheapflights global head of communications Phil Bloomfield said: "UK travellers have been punished with APD for 23 years and now the tax is even more unfair as it is even more punitive against airports in England and Wales.
"Our data shows the potential economic benefits of scrapping APD on all UK long haul flights: scrap the tax and see demand for travel grow, benefiting the entire UK through employment, development and investment.
"A passenger tax postcode lottery is indefensible and UK travellers won’t tolerate a two-tier system: whilst just 60 miles south of the border, passengers travelling from Newcastle face paying £75-150 more for what is essentially the same flight – something we believe many will find hard to accept."
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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