A campaign to highlight the impact of high Air Passenger Duty rates has resulted in 10,000 emails being sent to MPs over the issue.
The number was notched up in just two weeks following a Twitter campaign opposing the high levels of APD.
The Fair Tax on Flying campaign is also calling on MPs to back a Parliamentary Early Day Motion (EDM 174) which expresses concern about the financial impact of APD “on ordinary families and their ability to fly”. This has already won the cross-party support of 44 MPs.
Graham Brady MP, chairman of the Conservative Party’s influential 1922 Committee, said: “The UK already has the highest air passenger taxes anywhere in the world and this is harming our competitiveness as a nation as well as adding unreasonably to the cost of living for millions of people.
“I hope that the Treasury will be persuaded to look again at the impact of this damaging tax.”
The campaign has won the backing of the Institute of Directors and the Taxpayers’ Alliance.
Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer said: “Around 700 people each day are now writing an email to their MP which is testament to the growing opposition to this tax from ordinary travellers and businesses.”
But British Air Transort Association chief executive Simon Buck, Chief Executive of the British Air Transport Association, added: “Whilst we welcome the activism of so many people on Twitter and Facebook, it will not be until tens of thousands more throw their weight behind the www.afairtaxonflying.org campaign that we can expect the Treasury to start taking it seriously.”
New figures published by the Airport Operators Association found that a family flying from the UK in economy class this year will pay, on average, almost 400% more in in tax than if they were making the trip from another country in Europe that levies an air passenger tax
The association’s chief executive Darren Caplan said: “That 10,000 people have now written to their MP is just the tip of the iceberg: Air Passenger Duty is now one of the most despised stealth taxes in the UK and we hope that many, many more people let their MP know what they think.”