Campaign group backs frequent flyer tax plan

Hopes levy will eliminate need for an extra runway

Uxbridge Gazette, Stoke Mill, Woking Road, Guildford GU1 1QA

editorialuxbridge@ trinitysouth.co.uk FREQUENT air passengers would be forced to cough up more in taxes under a scheme supporters claim would eliminate the need for a new runway at Heathrow or Gatwick.

A ‘frequent flyers levy’ would replace air passenger duty under new proposals backed by groups including the New Economics Foundation, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

Each person would get one tax-free flight per year, they suggest, with the duty payable rising with each additional journey they take.

The idea has the backing of HACAN, the antiHeathrow expansion campaign group, which claims it would be fairer on the 52% of Britons who did not take a single flight last year and the 22% who took just one.

HACAN claims less than 15% of people nationally took three or more flights last year, most of whom it says were wealthy Londoners or people from the Home Counties heading to tourist destinations rather than on business trips.

HACAN chairman John Stewart said: “The beauty of this proposal is that it ticks both the equity and green boxes. It is a way of controlling the growth of aviation but still allowing ordinary families a holiday in the sun.”

According to HACAN, a survey by the Public Interest Research Centre found more than half of people preferred the idea of a frequent flyers levy to air passenger duty.

The proposal, which also has the support of the Tax Justice Network and the Campaign for Better Transport, among other organisations, was announced last week.

The Airports Commission, which is weighing up rival bids for a second runway at Gatwick or a third one at Heathrow, is expected to make its final recommendation imminently.