Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson has pledged to make planned hikes in Air Passenger Duty a political issue with a high profile public awareness campaign.
The airline’s president joined other industry leaders in condemning further rises in the tax and revealed that anti-APD messages would appear on Virgin tickets and on company websites.
Sir Richard, speaking in Tokyo as the airline marked its 20th anniversary of flying to Japan, warned that more hikes in APD were a threat to the livelihood of the whole British travel industry.
He warned that the economic downturn coupled with a sudden doubling in oil prices would make the next 12 months “the bloodiest year in aviation history”.
Yet Sir Richard said the government is bringing in £3 billion a year through APD with no evidence that funds are going towards developing cleaner energy sources.
“The Chancellor must be careful not kill off the British economy by killing trade and killing off the British Travel industry,” he told TravelMole. “They have got to get the balance right.
“We will make it an electoral thing so passengers realise tat taxes on travel and holidays have gone up by 300% and that the money is not going towards helping the environment.”
Sir Richard stressed that Virgin Group companies were investing 100% of their profits – around £300 million so far – into investigating ways to develop alternative energy sources.
“The more they [the government] tax us, the less we will have to invest in clean energy,” he said. “This government doesn’t seem to have a big plan to deal with carbon emissions.”
Sir Richard disclosed plans to create a ‘carbon war room’ to encourage ideas and collate data on the best ways of tackling global warming following Virgin Atlantic’s 25th anniversary celebrations in New York later this month.
