UK travel sector suffers from high ‘green’ aviation tax - Flights,Travel Airport News

Airport news for Flights,Travel on 02/11/2009.

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A recent increase in the airport departure tax has lead to an average £90 raise on first class tickets for long-haul flights. The new levy is also expected to add £1 to short distance tickets and to add up to £15 for travels of over 6,000 miles. A further duty hike is scheduled to be implemented by November 2010.

The raise, which will mainly affect long-haul travellers on first class cabins, was condemned by the Virgin Atlantic and Abta, a UK-based travel organization. Similarly, budget carriers are likely to take a heavy strike from the Air Passenger Duty (APD) hike, as the tax represents a huge proportion on the entire ticket cost.

The recent levy applied to air tickets was believed by travel agencies to damage both the UK economy and the tourism industry. Silla Maizey, Customer Service Director of British Airways, criticized the huge tax increase as completely unjustifiable and said that it is bad for the UK holidaymakers. She said that a group of four travelling to Australia will now need to pay £340 in tax, under the new APD policy.

Chief Executive of Abta, Mark Tanzer, said that the organization will run a campaign to create awareness among travellers and to prevent the government from implementing next year’s tax hike. He further urged the government to stop using the environment as the main reason for the new aviation tax.

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