Anger over increase in long-haul flight taxes

Aviation leaders criticise Chancellor for failing to support an industry that is ‘already on its knees’

TAXES on long-haul flights are to rise and will remain the highest in Europe, despite crisis-hit airlines calling for them to be suspended to help rescue summer holidays.

The air passenger duty (APD) rates for departures from Britain will increase by £2 to £82 for a traveller with an economy ticket, and by £5 to £181 for those in premium, business and first class cabins.

The change, revealed in Treasury documents accompanying the Budget, is in line with the RPI measure of inflation.

Taxes on short-haul flights to many European holiday hotspots will, however, remain frozen at £13 for an economy ticket and £26 for those in premium, business or first class.

Just hours before the Budget, Michael O’leary, CEO of Ryanair, told the Commons’ transport select committee that APD was “ridiculous” and “hits the poorest people hardest”.

Karen Dee, chief executive of the

Airport Operators Association, said the rise for long haul flights was “a very damaging blow to an industry already on its knees” and “not a budget for global Britain”.

And Tory MP Henry Smith, who is chairman of the all-party Future of Aviation group, said he was disappointed by the increase which was “not helpful for aviation recovery”.

Figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) showed Treasury receipts from APD fell by 85 per cent amid lockdown.

Holidaymakers face continued uncertainty as the Government’s global travel task force looks at ways to lift the ban on non-essential travel from May 17 in time for summer getaways. The UK and EU are looking to unlock travel through the use of vaccination certificates and pre-departure testing.

But the OBR warned that aviation faced continued “significant disruption” into next year due to the threat from new variants and predicted that air travel was unlikely to return to a “new normal” until 2024/25

Travellers returning to the UK from 33 red list countries currently face hotel quarantine while those from other countries have to self-isolate.

Rory Boland, editor of magazine Which? Travel, said that given the state of the industry, it was “an odd time” to increase the cost of flying. “From testing costs to airports and agents on the brink of failure, there are a number of more pressing matters in travel that are on the Government’s plate,” he said.

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-kaye said: “The Chancellor talks about protecting jobs and livelihoods, fixing the public finances and laying the foundations for the future economy, and yet he continues to ignore the UK’S aviation sector.”

Brian Strutton, general secretary of pilots’ union Balpa, said he was “utterly dismayed” that Mr Sunak had failed to help the industry.

He claimed the Budget “could push many airlines further into a death spiral and cost even more jobs”.