Press Room
Chancellor abolishes air passenger duty and adopts
opposition plane tax reforms
Tuesday 9 October 2007
In an attempt to gain the upper hand on the green
agenda and reduce carbon emissions, Alistair Darling announced in
today's Pre-Budget Report that from November 2009 he will replace
Air Passenger Duty (APD) with a duty payable per plane rather than
passenger.
Whilst there is a concerted effort from all parties on leading the
debate for carbon emission reduction, Maurice Fitzpatrick, a tax
expert at Grant Thornton believes that "the move away from the
blunt instrument of APD makes an awful lot of sense to encourage
good behaviour and punish bad. APD was not particularly effective -
only accounting for 1/17th (£2.1bn pa) of green tax yield, whereas
this new reform will bring in an additional £520 million a
year".
Fitzpatrick believes that "the new duty levied will not directly
impact how often Joe Bloggs jets off to the sun, but may reduce his
choice of destination and flight times as airlines are forced to up
their game in filling every seat on the routes carried".