Forty four MPs have signed a Parliamentary Early Day Motion calling for the impact of Air Passenger Duty to be fully examined.
The industry’s Fair Tax on Flying lobby is supporting the EDM as part of its campaign against high rates of APD.
Former Europe minister Denis MacShane (pictured) has written to Chancellor George Osborne calling on high rates of APD to be lowered in the wake of the government’s U-turn on fuel duty last week.
He told the Sunday Express: “After his remarkable U-turn on fuel duty, can I ask the chancellor to perform a similar somersault and do something about the tax my constituents have to pay to go on holiday or visit relatives when they go by air?”
The EDM says: “That this House believes that the UK’s Air Passenger Duty, the highest air passenger tax in the world, is acting as a deterrent to both inward investment and inbound tourism; is concerned about its financial impact on ordinary families and their ability to fly; notes the impact on businesses wishing to export to emerging markets; and calls on HM Treasury to commission a comprehensive study into the full economic effects of aviation tax in the UK, including on employment.”
Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer was quoted as saying: “In the year of the Jubilee and Olympics, it seems extraordinary that the government has increased APD by double the rate of inflation.”