In the run-up to the Budget in March, ABTA is calling on the public to contact their MPs to protest about the Government's intention to increase Air Passenger Duty – known as the flying poll tax - on 1st November 2010.
The increases in November 2010 will follow what ABTA calls “significant rises” in Air Passenger Duty (APD) imposed by the Government in 2009.
The amount of tax paid depends on the length of flight and will have a much greater effect on long haul travellers. As a result these increases will hit many families particularly hard as they plan holidays or trips to visit friends and relatives in Africa, Asia, North America and Caribbean, South America and Australasia.
Examples of the amounts involved include, a family of four travelling to the USA, Nigeria or Pakistan paying the Government £240 in tax and £300 for travel to the Caribbean or India. For travel to South America or Australia this figure rises to £340, almost £100 per passenger.
Before 1 November 2009 APD for these destinations was only £40 per passenger.
Last year the Dutch Government ditched a similar tax on the grounds that the damage it caused their economy vastly outweighed the money going into Government coffers.
The British Government has backtracked on earlier claims that APD is a green tax and the estimated £2.8 billion pounds raised each year goes directly into the Treasury's coffers and is not used to benefit the environment.
The Government estimates APD will discourage up to 1.4 million people from flying to and from the UK.
However, in 2012, UK airlines will be joining the European Union's Emission Trading Scheme, which ABTA says is a much fairer and more efficient way of addressing environmental concerns and should replace Air Passenger Duty.
"Air Passenger Duty is a particularly cruel tax as it prevents many families already suffering the effects of the recession from enjoying holidays or visiting their friends and relatives overseas,” said Mark Tanzer, chief executive of ABTA
“Raising this tax even higher will mean that many more will miss out on the chance to meet up with loved ones. The planned increase on 1 November is unjustifiable and nothing more than yet another stealth tax on those that can least afford it"
ABTA and other concerned organisations are supporting an e-petition calling on the Government to rethink these increases, which can be accessed at
www.abta.com
