ABTA takes APD and airport cases to Parliament
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ABTA appeared in front of two parliamentary groups today to put forward its cases regarding APD and aviation policy.
Mark Tanzer, chief executive of ABTA spoke before the All Parliamentary Group on Aviation (APPG) and called on the Treasury to commission independent analysis on the impact of APDand to reconsider airport growth options in the South East.
At the same time, Luke Pollard, head of public affairs at ABTA and Dorreen McKenzie from Knock Travel spoke in front of the Northern Ireland Select Committee to support Belfast’s APD case and help it compete against the Republic of Ireland, which has a lower tax.
The UK government has faced criticism from ABTA and the travel industry surrounding APD and aviation development, arguing a combination of the two will lose business in the UK. Today Virgin Atlantic announced it is to cancel its route between London and Nairobi following increased taxation.
“If the Government is serious about growth, then it must have a serious aviation policy. This means not only looking again at increased aviation capacity in the South East of England, but also looking again at plans to keep raising the level of Air Passenger Duty,” said Tanzer. “I know that ABTA Members are keen to do their part, but they are looking to Government for a new approach to aviation – that is the message we took to MPs today and one that we will be continuing to make in the coming months”.
