Air tax for children scrapped – so are you due a refund?
PARENTS taking their children on holiday will pay less for flights from Friday as a key travel tax is scrapped for under-12s.
But some families flying on or after May 1 will need to apply for a refund of air passenger duty if it was applied when they booked their children’s tickets.
The scrapping of excise duty on economy fares was one of the Coalition’s giveaways announced in December. Costs will shrink by £13 per child for flights in the UK or to the Continent, and £71 for countries more than 2,000 miles away. But there is no uniformity on how refunds for fares booked before May 1 for travel after that date will be processed.
Hannah Maundrell, editor of comparison website money.co.uk, says: ‘It seems many airlines are issuing automatic refunds to parents booking flights for the under-12s. Others are operating a refund by request system, and this could be one extra job many parents never get round to.’
The British Air Transport Association, which represents airlines, says a standardised approach has not been possible due to the short time-frame between the announcement in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement and its implementation, and the fact that not all airlines have details of passengers’ ages.
Maundrell says: ‘Anyone who has booked a flight for a child aged two to 11 after May 1 must check whether they paid air passenger duty. If they did, they need to get the money back from the airline or travel agent.’
From March next year, air passenger duty will also be ditched for children under the age of 16 who fly economy class.