Budget airlines battle tax rise
The travel industry has condemned reports that the government is planning to double air passenger duty tax.
Whitehall officials have refused to comment on rumours of a possible tax hike, but analysts expect to see a rise introduced by the end of the year.
The change might come either in Gordon Brown’s pre-Budget announcement or in the government’s long-awaited aviation White Paper.
If introduced, the proposed rises would see air passenger duty increase from £5 to £10 on economy tickets within Britain and from the UK to Europe, and from £20 to as much as £40 for other destinations.
A spokesman for budget carrier easyJet said: “We shall fight tooth and nail any increase in air passenger duty. It’s very, very sloppy thinking. If it’s an attempt to price people out of the sky, the government should say that and let the voters say whether they like low-cost flying or not.”
However, the move has been welcomed by the green lobby, which believes that the tax hikes would help curb the growth in air travel.
Roger Higman, Friends of the Earth’s chief aviation campaigner, said: “Increasing air passenger duty has an unstoppable logic and we would fully support it as an effective way to reduce the demand for flying.”
The forthcoming white paper is also expected to give the green light to new runways in the south-east, including a third at Heathrow, as official figures predict the growth in flying will continue from 180 million people a year using UK airports to 500 million by 2030.
Passenger tickets are also subject to taxes levied by certain countries and by charges imposed by airports and airlines.
The Department for Transport and the Office for National Statistics carried out a poll last year to establish exactly what airline passengers would be prepared to pay. Half said an increase of 10 per cent would be acceptable.
