The industry today welcomed calls from the Transport Select Committee for the government to conduct its own economic assessment of Air Passenger Duty.
The recommendation comes after more than 200,000 people wrote to their local MPs calling for an economic impact-assessment into APD in a campaign run by pressure group A Fair Tax on Flying.
This was supported by more than 100 MPs who are backing calls for a review and research from PwC in February which concluded that the abolition of APD would increase revenues to the Treasury and would pay for itself.
Airport Operators Association chief executive Darren Caplan said: “The committee’s report adds yet more evidence to recent economic studies which clearly show that APD is not only costing the country lost revenue, but is also deterring airlines from introducing new routes to UK airports.
“How can it be fair that a family of four flying from the UK to the US has to pay £268 in APD at the lowest possible rate, whereas in France they pay £38 and in 21 out of 27 other EU countries they pay no aviation tax at all?”
Welcoming the ‘Aviation Strategy’ report from the committee, British Air Transport Association chief executive Simon Buck said: “It is good to see some refreshingly pragmatic and straight forward cross-party thinking from the politicians on the Transport Select Committee.
“We may not agree with everything they have concluded, but it is clear they set the national interest first and have been able to reach consensus on the way forward.”