Virgin call for Tories to scrap air tax

The powerful airline that is Virgin Atlantic has asked the Conservative Party to do away with the scheduled increase in Air Passenger Duty (APD) if they get into office in 2010. The first change in how APD is calculated went through on the 1st November and passengers now pay tax based on how far it is from London to the capital city of the country they are travelling to. For short-haul flights the first rise was only around £1, but for longer flights the initial rise has been up to £20.

“These proposed increases will not only hurt the aviation industry but also harm the British economy and those of many developing countries, like the Caribbean, which heavily rely on the tourism trade. It will also tax many hard working British holidaymakers out of flying altogether.  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. The Government seems to claim this is an environmental tax despite a total lack of evidence to support this claim,” said Virgin Atlantic chief executive, Steve Ridgway.

The rise will affect almost everyone that has to fly and those that choose to pamper themselves in premium class cabins will be stung for even more in tax. Amazingly though, if someone has a private jet or chooses to fly by one, they will not have to pay this tax. Virgin has set out their main concerns to the Conservative Party and say that the tax will be bad for UK businesses as people will divert to other European hubs for onward journeys; the change in calculation for APD is also quite unfair on some developing economies like the Caribbean. Virgin has been fighting the tax for a while now and all their tickets have had slogans asking their customers to support them by logging on to their website  to fight against the APD.