UK the worst for air taxes

The battery of invective directed at the government over the high rate in taxes that air passengers pay has continued today with a statement from leading British airlines. Our tax is the 139th highest in the world.

CD-Traveller tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world. This month Peckham and Virginia are making waves, but there’s criticism for cruise ships and the Chancellor’s increase of APD

Research from M&S Bank suggests that holidays abroad this coming half-term will be cheaper than last year. Before you jump up and down for joy, the bank says that this is primarily due to exchange rates.

As I said yesterday, in all the discussions about the delays in border entry queues at airports very little has been suggested as a way of resolving the problem. The announcement yesterday of eighty more staff is not a solution merely a sticking plaster. As passenger numbers grow, an alternative method of screening and checking passengers is needed.

In the last couple of weeks or so, the spotlight has turned on the lengthening queues at passport control as you re-enter the UK. In particular it seems to have taken much longer at Heathrow and Gatwick. Indignation, whipped up in particular by The Daily Telegraph, has led to some MP’s saying that “something must be done.”

I’ve just booked a return trip to California. The cost? £162. Yes, I kid you not, that is the price of an airline ticket on British Airways. Except that it’s not. The ticket might be that price but all the other extras and taxes and surcharges bring it up to £541.89.

Passengers planning to fly with budget airline Ryanair in summer 2012 will need to travel light. Michael O’Leary’s no frills airline has revealed that it will be increasing its online baggage fees by 25 percent

When the increased charges come in on April Fools’ Day (what better day could the government choose?) you will pay £13 each way to fly, for example, from a London airport to a Scottish one. I can go by train or coach cheaper than the tax let alone the fare if I pick the times carefully!

It’s official: the Chancellor announced last week that the controversial Air Passenger Duty (APD) increase, will go ahead after all, despite big rises in APD in 2007 and 2010.

I thought I was dreaming a minute ago. On BBC’s Breakfast, Michael O’Leary from Ryanair and Willie Walsh of the holding company that owns British Airways and Iberia were standing side-by-side having a go at the government about APD.

What are we to make of the government decision to reduce APD for transatlantic flights out of the province from £60 to £12? The government says it is answer a particular case whereby residents of Northern Ireland can travel to Dublin and only pay €3 instead of £60.

Air Passenger Duty was introduced in 1994. On every airline ticket purchased it is payable and it is the duty of the airline to pass this tax onto the government when the passenger flies. But what happens if the passenger doesn’t fly?

What is the role of the newspaper? To present news would be the obvious answer. Which I suppose means news which is as up-to-date as it can be. So hats off to the Sunday Express which this morning manages to use, as its only story on its front page, a story that is over a year old

The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee of the House of Commons has suggested that air passenger duty (APD) on all flights from Northern Ireland should be abolished.
Why?
To counter the threat the tax poses to the economy of the province. But we all face this tax wherever we live in the UK. What’s so special about Northern Ireland?

This daft idea was put up fourteen regional airports in the UK to the APD consultation process. They have jointly signed a submission saying that replacing APD with tax on the busiest airports would stimulate the regions.

Last Friday saw the end of the consultation period for APD, Air Passenger Duty. Airlines, airports, industry boffins have all put in their two pennyworth so is there any consensus?

IATA, the international body that airlines belong to has decided that their members are having a hard time of it this year so has cut in half the amount of profits that airlines will make this year to $4 billion. Bad weather, fuel prices, the unrest in the Middle East, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami are all blamed. But is this a case of IATA shouting wolf? And should we care?

Last week, Baroness Benjamin introduced a debate in the House of Lords about APD- Air Passenger Duty. Lady Benjamin, better known as Floella to most people, was concerned not so much by the tax itself but the inequity with which it is applied. There seemed complicit acceptance that it would remain despite the fact there [...]

CD Traveller tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world. This month Hong Kong hits new heights with the opening of the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong while London looks to welcome an influx of passengers ahead of the Royal Wedding on April 29

Today’s budget announcement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer. George Osborne, has a number of items that will impact on holidaymakers and travellers. Here is a quick summary of what CD-Traveller has spotted so far.

With the budget less than a fortnight away the travel trade is boosting its attack on how high APD is and how damaging it could be for jobs and the economy if it stays at its high level. They have been boosted in that one of the few countries in Western Europe to retain such a tax has got rid of it. Ireland has removed it because it was seeing reduced tourism coming into Ireland and fewer air passengers both of which meant the tax was not raising net money but costing the economy instead. Will George Osborne, the Chancellor, take heed?

Yesterday CD-Traveller covered the forecasts of ABTA for the coming year. As a change and since everyone else is forecasting (dreaming of what might be might be a better expression), I thought we would as well. Before that, however, let me wish you a happy new year. May 2011 bring all you wish for it because it certainly isn’t going to give me what I should like.
But let’s start with a quick review of the year – or at least from the point-of-view of the traveller.

ABTA has produced a 42 page report on what it thinks will be the travel trends of 2011. Forecasts are fun if only to look back on in 12 months time and see what didn’t come to pass. They got one thing right last year though. 2010 has been a tough year with a number of airlines and tour operators going bust as the industry tried to second guess what we, the travellers, would do. We booked later than ever; more of us stayed at home than many expected yet long haul proved a growth area.
So what for 2011?

CD Traveller tells you what’s hot in the travel world