Walsh says APD is ‘out of control’
British Airways has led the latest call for APD to be scrapped – 20 years since its launch.
One of the UK’s most unpopular taxes, APD has "snowballed out of control", according to Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways’ parent company IAG.
Since its introduction, APD has increased seven fold, while inflation has not even doubled in the same period.
A family of four flying to a destination outside Europe will soon pay £284 in tax, compared with just £40 when the levy was introduced on November 1, 1994.
APD, which is the highest aviation tax imposed anywhere in the world, has also hugely outstripped other UK taxes such as petrol duty, road tax, duties on alcohol and insurance premiums over the last two decades.
Annual Treasury revenue from APD is now nearly ten times as much as in the tax’s first full year.
In total, air passengers in the UK have paid more than £26 billion in APD since 1994.
Walsh said: "Twenty years on, APD has snowballed out of control and become a tax that works against people wanting to visit relatives and friends, go on holiday or grow their business to create jobs.
"APD is way out of line with both other indirect taxes in the UK and flight taxes in other countries. Globalisation has accelerated enormously in the last 20 years. This tax helps no-one in today’s economic environment. We must call time on APD."
Meanwhile, BA will operate a double-daily service to Bilbao, Spain, in March from Heathrow. Spanish carrier, Vueling, which currently operates the Heathrow-Bilboa route and which is part of IAG, will move its Bilboa service to Gatwick.
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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