‘Airport needs tax cut to be competitive’ Action call for Birmingham as Scotland halves passenger duty

TAXES on air travel should be cut at Birmingham Airport so it can compete with Scottish rivals on a level playing field, MPs have told the Government.

The call came from politicians from both major parties, as they spoke in a House of Commons debate attended by Ministers.

It follows the announcement from the Scottish National Party that the Scottish government will cut Air Passenger Duty in half, with the reduction beginning in April 2018, and abolish it entirely “when resources allow”.

The impact on English regional airports was raised by Solihull MP Julian Knight (Con), who told MPs: “Part of attracting foreign investment is connectivity through Birmingham Airport. Birmingham Airport is, frankly, a couple of decades behind Manchester in many aspects at the moment, although it does have spare capacity.”

He urged the Government “to devolve air passenger duty so that Birmingham Airport can compete on a level playing field as devolution moves forward.”

Dudley North MP Ian Austin (Lab) backed the call and said Birmingham Airport should be expanded so it could serve more passengers once HS2 high speed rail services start running.

He said: “With HS2 on the way, expanding capacity at Birmingham would enable it to play a much bigger role as a global hub, increasing the region’s connectivity and enabling travellers and businesses to come to the midlands and local businesses to export much more easily.”

Air Passenger Duty is charged on adult passengers on flights leaving the UK, and passengers pay £73 on flights of more than 2,000 miles if they are in the cheapest seats on the plane, such as economy class seats.

But in the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, UK party leaders including David Cameron, the Prime Minister at the time, promised to give Scotland more control over taxes.

It means Air Passenger Duty is now controlled by the Scottish government, which plans to reduce the tax.

Some passengers could decide to fly from airports such as Edinburgh in order to save money, but a bigger worry for English regional airports is that airlines will favour Scottish airports when they are choosing where to fly services fron.

Responding fro the Government, Local Government Minister Marcus Jones, MP for Nuneaton, said: “We should not understate the importance of Birmingham airport and East Midlands airport to the Midlands region.

“East Midlands airport is at the forefront of freight and is the second busiest freight hub in the country. It is probably the biggest dedicated freight hub in the country. Birmingham airport is now seeing significant passenger growth.

“As part of the regional growth fund made by the Government during the last Parliament, a significant project was undertaken to extend the runway at Birmingham Airport, including the diversion of the A45. As a subsequent benefit of that longer runway, Birmingham airport is now able to serve longer-haul markets than it was, because it has that longer runway to support the long-range planes.”