The travel industry is launching a major offensive today in its battle against Air Passenger Duty.
It is calling on 100,000 people to email their local MP to support its Fair Tax on Flying campaign.
The lobbying group, which comprises more than 30 airlines, airports, tour operators and trade bodies, has also unveiled a new website – www.afairtaxonflying.org.
A template text has been put on the website so all visitors need to do is enter their postcode and email address to submit the email.
"I urge everyone who believes the tax on flying is too high to do something about it: send the website link to your friends, Tweet about the campaign and together let’s spread the campaign far and wide to ensure as many people as possible support us in making our case to the Government," said Simon Buck, chief executive of the British Air Transport Association (BATA).
Luke Pollard, ABTA head of public affairs, added: "Holiday-makers and business travellers can join the call for this study by lobbying their MP. Research done by other European countries swiftly resulted in their air tax being reduced or removed and we are confident that a report in the UK would show this tax is damaging to growth."
In the last six years the Government has increased APD on short-haul flights in economy class by 160% and on economy ‘medium haul’ flights by 220%.
New calculations by the Airport Operators Association (AOA) have found that a family flying from the UK in economy class now pays, on average, 3.75 times more in tax, than if they were making the trip from another country in Europe that levies an air passenger tax.
The campaign has already created a dedicated Facebook page www.facebook.com/afairtaxonflying to raise awareness of the tax and allow consumers to register their views.
by Bev Fearis
