The Traveller's Magazine
If you read the news daily, you’ll be all too familiar with the contradictions it seems to have at times. Two topics in today’s travel headlines are enough to make conscious consumers’ heads spin. In the forecast: a rise in passenger taxes and the Government is telling travellers to stay home.
APD is on the rise
Let’s start with the increase in passenger tax. The tax on flight tickets is expected to rise by a whopping 25% because the number of people travelling by plane is far less than what the Government has forecasted. What does this mean? It means that the Treasury has a blank spot in their finance plan, as much as £500 million. There are two solutions. Encourage more Britons to travel this year to get passenger numbers up to what they used to be before the recession or to raise taxes on flights to/from the UK to make up for the deficit.
The Treasury, if it hopes to make up for lost money, will need to increase APD by at least 24% by 2016. The next increase could come as soon as November of this year. British passengers travelling by plane pay the highest flight taxes in the world!
Tip: Both Holland and Ireland have scrapped APD and it could be worth it to take-off from Dublin or Amsterdam on your next long-haul journey.Cutting carbon
The Government has also released a report asking British families to skip holidays abroad, enjoying instead a “stay-cation.” Why? Britain has to meet its climate change targets by 2050 and in order to do this, they need to tackle air travel, the biggest contributor to carbon emissions. The Department of Transportation have recently consulted with a number of agencies to help them reduce their Co2 emissions. The solution? Tell Britons to stay home.
One consultancy firm suggested increasing awareness of the carbon footprint produced when travelling by air, thereby encouraging Britons to take fewer holidays overseas.
We have seen recently KLM take-off with biofuel-powered flights, a technology that can be easily used by British airlines as well.
Will further rises in APD deter international travellers from visiting the UK? Will it deter you from travelling by plane for your next holiday? What about cutting carbon emissions?
