Airport chief hits out at delays to tax cuts for airlines in Scotland

Scotland’s air passengers are going to “suffer more than most” as a result of Brexit uncertainty and high taxes, theheadofedinburghairport has warned.

Gordon Dewar, managing director of the capital hub, stepped up calls for the Scottish Government to deliver a long-delayed cut in air passenger duty.

“We’ve got particular issues in the UK with all of the uncertainty around Brexit and on top of that we’ve got the highest taxation anywhere in the world,” he told BBC Radio Scotland. “What we’re hear0 Gordon Dewar said airlines had cut services

ing from airlines is that, as belts need to be tightened, Scotland and the UK in general are probably going to suffer more than most.

“While we’re bucking the trend at the moment, it’s not a comfortable place to be. It’s really important the Scottish government fulfils the promise they made a few years ago about reducing that tax or we will see more reductions, as we’ve already seen in other airports around Scotland and indeed a couple of routes ourselves, where APD has driven airlines out of the market.

“Airlines like Norwegian and Ryanair, which had increased flights from Scotland on the back of the promised APD cut – but have since axed service from Glasgow and Edinburgh after it failed to materialise.

“Because it’s not happened and because they’re not confident it’s ever going to happen, they’re now taking it away.”