Another airport Tax Hike to Cripple British Tourism
The British government will increase the UK Air Passenger Duty by 8% next April.
Longer flights up to 6500km will see an increase from £60 to £65, flights between 6500km and 9656km will rise from £75 to £81 and the tax on economy flights above 9600km – such as trips to New Zealand will rise from £85 to £92.
Twenty years after its introduction and after a succession of punitive increases, the air passenger duty has risen by 333% in six years. The number of flights taken by passengers from the UK fell by 29 million between 2007 and 2010 while passenger numbers on the continent grew by 66 million last year as overseas bound Britons find it cheaper to use European airports.
British air passengers are already the most heavily taxed in the world: on average, they pay almost nine times more duty than their European counterparts. In fact, the Treasury will collect almost twice as much in passenger taxes this year (£2.2 billion) as all other European countries combined (£1.17 billion), according to new research published by the Fair Tax on Flying alliance, a group of more than 30 travel organisations.
Airlines are furious with the announcement and have called for the APD to be scrapped. Willie Walsh, boss of BA parent company International Airlines Group said the harm to the economy exceeded the revenue that would be raised.
“APD is by far the highest aviation tax in the world. It is a tax on economic activity – a tax on jobs in airlines, airports, UK tourism and leisure, and many supplier industries. It is also a tax on doing business with Britain,” said Mr Walsh.
Bosses from some of the biggest airlines in the UK (including the likes of Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, and easyJet,) have said that the government’s consultation on Air Passenger Duty has been a scam and a waste of money. People have been left with a tax that has already cost some 25,000 jobs. It is doing increasingly more damage than good. It sends a message to the world that Britain is a difficult and expensive place to do business with.
The airline bosses went on to say that they are united in calling for the government to commission an independent study on Air Passenger Duty’s overall economic impact. They have no doubt that this would confirm that Air Passenger Duty has a negative effect on the UK.
Tourism & Transport Forum Australia and Tourism Industry Association New Zealand are concerned about the impact the rise in the Air Passenger Duty. TTF chief executive John Lee is urging prime ministers Gillard and Key to raise concerns with the British prime minister directly.
“The Air Passenger Duty is a discriminatory, arbitrary tax that impedes tourism, travel, trade and economic growth. This will be the fourth APD rise since 2007 and now takes the tax paid by an ordinary British traveller to more than $140,” Mr Lee said.
TIA CEO Tim Cossar described the latest rise as unfair, with the UK already having the highest departure tax in the world. With poor economic conditions in Europe already affecting consumer confidence, reducing the likelihood of people to take a long-haul holiday, the increase will price more potential visitors to Australia and New Zealand out of the market, Mr Cossar explained.
“It’s a tax on tourism which reaps billions of pounds in revenue for the British government masquerading as environmental policy,” Mr Cossar said.
The tax has been increased for the fourth time since 2007, during which time many European countries have phased out their versions of APD to help stimulate their economies. In 22 of the 27 countries of the European Union, there is no aviation tax at all.
The number of passengers passing though UK airports fell 7.4 million in 2010.
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