The Isle of Man Travel Trade Association is calling on the island’s government to scrap air passenger duty (APD), claiming it has caused passenger numbers to fall.
The association said Ronaldsway airport remains 200,000 passenger movements down compared with pre-Covid levels and added that easyJet will cut capacity on the Liverpool route this year by 45,000 seats.
Mann Link Travel chairman Brian Kelly (pictured), a member of the association, said: “We could easily find ourselves 250,000 seats short of pre-Covid numbers at the end of 2025.”
He added that association members believe high fares and the charging of APD are the main reasons for the trend.
“Airlines tend to move away from airports when APD regularly exceeds the fares they can charge,” said Kelly.
“APD is due to increase again in the UK shortly. Will the Isle of Man follow suit? It’s within the control of our government, not determined by Westminster.”
Calling on the island’s government to scrap APD at the next budget, he pointed to Jersey and Guernsey’s decisions not to charge the duty and said this saves at least £26 on each flight from the Channel Islands compared with the Isle of Man.
Travelling on a codeshare from Jersey to Cape Town via Heathrow in business class costs £200 less than someone flying from the Isle of Man to Cape Town via Heathrow because of APD, Kelly added.
The island’s travel trade association fears a “downward spiral” of reducing traffic will lead to higher APD charges as the government tries to recover the costs of operating the airport.
The association said it was “strongly in favour” of scrapping APD, arguing that doing so would deliver “overall benefits to the Island’s economy and residents”.
Kelly added: “How much is the appeal of the Isle of Man to new businesses and new residents affected by the shrinking air route network?
“The government may be picking up £3 million in APD annually which goes straight to Treasury coffers, but what is the hit to the wider economy of reduced traffic?”
The Isle of Man’s parliament will consider the budget for 2025/26 tomorrow (Tuesday, February 18).