Drop the Air Passenger Duty, it's costing us business

Chair of the European Parliament's Transport Committee Brian Simpson has criticised successive UK governments for their policy of over-taxing the aviation industry. Speaking in Brussels to a wide audience of UK Transport professionals, Mr Simpson highlighted in particular the recent massive increase in Air Passenger Duty as well as the ever-increasing cost of security, which is also borne by the aviation industry and the travelling public.

"There is absolutely no doubt that these massive increases in airline costs are a disincentive to airlines flying direct to both Manchester and Liverpool on longer haul flights, forcing people in the north to travel via Amsterdam, Paris and the stressful experience that is Heathrow for intercontinental flights", said Mr Simpson.

Brian believes that airlines from the Far East are interested in flying into Manchester in particular, but have refused to do so because Air Passenger Duty and other costs make the UK very expensive to fly to and compromises their profit margins.

"When you fly to Singapore in economy class you are faced with an £85 per person tax rising to £175 in business class for a single journey. This appears excessive to me and is damaging for economic recovery in our region. This tax discriminates against aviation, has nothing to do with the environment or Europe and instead has everything to do with the Government raising money for its coffers. More importantly it is acting as a brake on route development for our airports. It's time that the Government had a rethink on Air Passenger Duty and dropped it altogether", added Mr Simpson.