Chancellor ignores calls for flights tax cut

Yesterday's (March 21) spring Budget made no mention of the hugely controversial Air Passenger Duty (APD) fee that all travellers have to pay on flights taking off from UK airports.

This comes despite a rare show of unity from rival airlines against the tax hike. APD will increase by eight per cent from April 1, meaning a family of four taking return flights from Glasgow to London will pay £208 in APD alone. A family of four taking flights from the UK to Orlando will have to fork out a whopping £520 in APD charges.

Responding to the Budget, the bosses of easyJet, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Ryanair said in a joint statement: "At a time when the Government talks about creating jobs and growth, its blinkered insistence on further increases in APD achieves precisely the opposite.

"International visitors are being turned off the UK because of the exorbitant level of APD - which is by far the highest air travel tax in the world.

"In every other leading country, aviation is an expanding industry that underpins and facilitates growth in other parts of the economy. In the UK, rises of up to 360 per cent in APD in the last seven years are squeezing the life out of the economy."