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EasyJet slams APD hike as ‘double whammy’
Almost 10 million passengers are estimated to be liable for paying additional Air Passenger Duty from today even though they booked flights before the December 6 announcement
The claim came from easyJet which described today’s doubling of APD as a “double whammy for consumers and the environment”.
For easyJet, this means around 800,000 individual journeys fall into this “trap”.
Around 90% of easyJet’s passengers have already paid the tax either online or by phone and the airline has made arrangements to take the remaining payments at the airports prior to check in.
As only a relatively small number of passengers are still yet to pay the extra tax, the airline does not expect any disruption at airports over the next few weeks and has introduced special procedures for assisting passengers during the transition period.
The airline’s chief executive Andy Harrison said: “It is almost unprecedented for the Government to demand additional tax on something that has already been bought and paid for – but that’s exactly what they have done with APD.
“EasyJet takes the issue of aviation and the environment very seriously and we are already making huge efforts to ensure we are as environmentally-efficient as is possible, but APD is the wrong tax for the economy and the wrong tax for the environment. It penalises all airlines and aircraft equally, when clearly some airlines are much more environmentally efficient than others.
“The Chancellor has come up with a tax that will do nothing for the environment while penalising the travelling public even more.”
Lawrence Hunt, CEO of new all business-class airline Silverjet, said: “The doubling of this tax and its retrospective introduction are stealth taxes in green camouflage, which will do nothing to help reduce carbon emissions.
“In fact, the tax is counterproductive, as passengers may believe they have already offset their carbon emissions by having paid this tax, when in fact the tax will not result in one iota less carbon being produced or offset.”
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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