Air Passenger Duty (APD) to rise

UK Chancellor George Osborne last week was in no mood to help the beleaguered air transport industry with the news that APD will increase by double the rate of inflation from 1 April regardless of when the booking was made.

All will become clearer tomorrow (6 December) when the revised mileage arrangement will be announced, together with taxation details for private jets.  Hopefully the mileage bands will be based on actual distances rather than the present nation’s capital arrangement.

Virgin Atlantic Chief Commercial Officer Julie Southern summed it up all for all.

“It’s completely unacceptable that millions of passengers now face an additional tax bill on tickets they have already paid for.  This stealth tax, hidden by the Government in the small print of a secondary document, isn’t a tax on airlines, it is a tax on passengers – tourists, businesses and British families alike.

“We have been warning the Government for months of the impact this will have and have urged them to avoid this unnecessary situation.  Hundreds of thousands of passengers have already booked travel with us after April 1st, meaning millions across the wider industry are likely to be impacted.  If the Chancellor really was focused on economic growth he would have abolished APD, not made the world’s highest air passenger tax even higher.” www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/2011budget_airpassenger.htm

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