UK based airlines have renewed their calls to stop Air Passenger Duty (an excise duty charged on the carriage of passengers flying on an aircraft with an authorised take off weight of more than ten tonnes or more than twenty seats) from being raised on April 1 2012.
“Aviation wants to, and should be, playing a leading role in economic recovery – as it does in so many other countries,” said the four airline chief executives - Willie Walsh (IAG), Steve Ridgway (Virgin Atlantic), Carolyn McCall (Easyjet) and Michael O’Leary (Ryanair) - in a joint statement. “But the UK imposes the highest aviation taxes in the world, and keeps on increasing them without any analysis of their overall economic impact. We are exporting economic growth, and jobs, to competitor countries. How much longer must this madness go on?”
Sadly it is likely that APD will increase in the future as the UK government wants to grow the amount of money it takes by 46% in the next four years from the current £2.6 billion to £3.8 billion by 2016. This, together with a lack of airport expansion around London means that the UK is starting to slip behind competitors. Timescales, including planning regulations now man that the UK will slip behind European competitors, it is just a matter of how soon.
UK Airlines plead with government to stop tax increase
