ITT chairman Steven Freudmann has described George Osborne’s deferral of the introduction of a per plane levy in his emergency budget as “deeply disappointing and a bit odd”.
He added that he feared that the failure to implement the new tax would mean the November APD rises would go ahead.
He said: “It’s really, really disappointing. The coalition government looked at reforming APD as soon as they got into power so we anticipated full details of the proposals would be forthcoming so it seems really, really odd that they havent.”
He added: “The industry as a whole prefers the per plane levy idea so it’s a bit of a let down.
"Presumably we are going to see APD rises in November now which is massively disappointing for the industry."
Freudmann said that Osborne’s raising of VAT to 20% will have an effect on the industry’s customers but overall he believed the travel industry had avoided being targeted by the chancellor’s austere budget.
by Dinah Hatch
