The head of one of the world’s top long-haul airlines, Virgin Atlantic, has asked the Conservative Party and David Cameron to promise eliminating any extra rise in Air Passenger Duty upon winning the elections in 2010.

Air Passenger Duty (APD) is scheduled to increase by up to 113% by the month of November 2010, a move which will negatively affect all business and leisure travellers departing the UK. The initial phase of the two phase APD increase began on 1 November this year.

Chief executive of Virgin Atlantic Steve Ridgway said the planned APD increases with hurt more than just the aviation industry. He said they promise to also affect the British economy as well as those of several developing nations such as the ones in the Caribbean, which are greatly dependent on tourism.

Ridgway said “We are therefore calling on the Conservatives to see sense on this issue and commit to scrapping the planned increase for 2010 if they are successful at the next election. Everyone knows the airline industry, along with the wider UK business community, will be severely damaged by these unjust future increases in APD.

“The Government seems to claim this is an environmental tax despite a total lack of evidence to support this claim. Aviation is already paying its own way for carbon emissions generated and any further increases in APD are simply lining government pockets,” he added.

The APD jump signifies, for example, that the tax on a flight from Heathrow to Dubai will increase from £40 to £60; other examples are £80 to £150 on a Premium Economy ticket from Gatwick to Barbados and £80 to £170 on an Upper Class flight from Heathrow to Sydney.

Since the month of July, all e-tickets from Virgin Atlantic displayed messages criticising the APD increases by the UK Government, and calling customers to visit their site and register a protest to their local MP about the tax hikes.

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Filed under Business & Finance, Travel News, UK News, World News

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Business & Finance, Travel News, UK News, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.