Fury after air tax cut delayed once more

SNP plans to cut air tax have been postponed for at least another year.

The further delay triggered a furious reaction from aviation chiefs, who said ministers should either put up or shut up.

Public finance minister Kate Forbes said the planned 50 per cent cut by replacing air passenger duty (APD) with an “air departure tax” (ADT) could not be implemented until continued exemption for Inverness airport was secured.

APD is £13 per passenger on flights from the UK of up to 2,000 miles, and £78 for longer distances.

Ms Forbes said: “A solution has not yet been found that would be ready for introduction at the beginning of the next financial year.

“This, taken together with the continued uncertainty around Brexit, means that we have to defer the introduction of ADT beyond April 2020.”

But Airlines UK and the chiefs of Scotland’s three largest airports said: “The Scottish Government needs to be straight with industry. This was a castiron manifesto commitment and they have now failed to implement it two years in a row.

“Either do what you have promised and get on with it sooner rather than later or be up front with us that it is never going to happen.”