Consumer Council wants APD on NI flights scrapped
03.06.11
Air Passenger Duty (APD) should be scrapped on flights from Northern Ireland because of its dependence on flight connections via Great Britain, the Consumer Council has said. The call was made as the amount levied on a return flight from Belfast to London could increase to £32 because of a review of the levy.
The Government is consulting on options for reform of APD, and wants to ensure aviation meets the cost of its impact on the environment. However, Scott Kennerley, head of transport policy at the Consumer Council, told a Stormont committee: ‘Air passenger duty should be removed from all air travel to and from Northern Ireland, given our high dependence on air travel.'
‘If you need to travel from Northern Ireland to somewhere within the UK to connect to another flight, for example, you have to fly. So in many cases we pay APD twice, as we don`t have an alternative.’
In Dublin the equivalent tax is €3 per person and that may be removed. This also creates a disincentive for people to fly from their local airport, which can increase the impact on the environment.
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