French Travel News-2010/2011 | UK companies join forces to fight air taxes

Friday, March, 04th at 11.50 by Deborah Bates

Travel companies throughout the UK have joined forces to fight against the rise in Air Passenger Duty (APD); and have together lobbied the government to put an end to the increases.

According to News Pointer, the 'Fair Tax on Flying' campaign has seen around 25 travel companies (including BAA, ABTA, Tui and Thomas Cook) call publicly for an end to the continued rise in APD - which has increased by some 325 per cent since 2005.

The example cited by the campaign was the average British family of four, who could end up paying 25 times more in tax on a long-haul flight than a similar family living throughout other areas of Europe, such as France.

For a family of the same size going on a long-haul flight from Ireland, the tax would be 30 times less than the amount Brits are forced to pay.

The APD tax was doubled in 2007, by the Labour government, and the members of the campaign are hoping that the new coalition government will take notice, and do something about the rising costs. It is hoped that if they did this, more Brits could head off on French holidays or to other destinations that take their fancy.

However some members of the industry are worried that instead of taking notice, the government will in fact increase the tax again.

Thomson Airways' Christian Cull is one of them, claiming that the APD is a 'stealth tax,' and that: 'As things stand, APD simply does not make sense.'

'It is illogical, unbalanced and geographically illiterate. An increase in APD in this economy would make it even harder for British families to afford to holiday abroad, something that we believe is everyone's right,' he told The Telegraph.