Air Passenger Duty (APD) is to continue rising despite the travel industry’s pleas for chancellor George Osborne to scrap the aviation tax.
Osborne did not mention APD during today’s budget presentation in the House of Commons but documents released after the speech show that APD will rise “in line with inflation” from April 2014 on top of the already scheduled increase of 2 per cent from next month.
Groups such as the Fair Tax on Flying alliance and the UK's leading airlines have been calling for APD to scrapped but this has fallen on deaf ears with Osborne.
While the lowest rates of APD for journeys of less than 2,000 miles will remain flat at £13 per passenger for economy and £26 for all other classes of travel over the next two years, all of the other three bands will go up both in April 2013 and April 2014.
The CEOs of IAG, Virgin Atlantic, Easyjet and Ryanair responded to the news with the following statement:
"We are very disappointed that the Government’s tax on flying, already the highest in the world, will increase yet again this year and next. These rises in Air Passenger Duty show the emptiness of rhetoric on boosting exports to emerging economies and building the most competitive tax system in the world.
"Increasing this alarmingly uncompetitive tax on business, trade, and inbound tourism beggars belief when the evidence clearly suggests that abolition would deliver growth, create 60,000 jobs and pay for itself through higher receipts from other taxes."
Here are the full details of the APD rises:
Band A (0-2,000 miles from UK, includes Europe)
From April 1 2013
Economy: £13 (no change)
All other cabins: £26 (no change)
From April 1, 2014
Economy: £13 (no change)
All other cabins: £26 (no change)
Band B (2,001-4,000 miles, includes North America and Middle East)
From April 1 2013
Economy: £67 (up by £2 year-on-year)
All other cabins: £134 (up by £4)
From April 1, 2014
Economy: £69 (up by £2)
All other cabins: £138 (up by £4)
Band C (4,001-6,000 miles, ncludes South America, China and India)
From April 1 2013
Economy: £83 (up by £2)
All other cabins: £166 (up by £4)
From April 1 2014
Economy: £85 (up by £2)
All other cabins: £170 (up by £4)
Band D (over 6,000 miles, includes Australasia, Malaysia and Indonesia)
From April 1 2013
Economy: £94 (up by £2)
All other cabins: £188 (up by £4)
From April 1 2014
Economy: £97 (up by £3)
All other cabins: £194 (up by £4)
Report by Rob Gill
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