U.S. Travel Organizations Oppose U.K. Passenger Tax Increase

U.S. Travel Organizations Oppose U.K. Passenger Tax Increase
By Kate Rice

About 30 U.S. travel organizations, including the American Society of Travel Agents, airline employee unions and other industry stakeholders, are lobbying British authorities to abandon plans to increase the Air Duty Passenger (APD) tax rate again.

In a letter to George Osborne, chancellor of the Exchequer for Her Majesty’s treasury, they said that the ADP tax unfairly penalizes airlines and their customers and pointed out that similar proposals for an ADP in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Ireland were scrapped.

The letter said that such taxes significantly reduce demand for air transportation, and any increase will worsen that situation. The result would be a cascading series of events that would undermine other efforts to stimulate the economy.

Right now, the U.K.’s APD is the highest in the world, the letter said, and would have a chilling effect on travel to the U.K. As an example of the size of the increase, the group wrote that a party of four business travelers in premium economy seats traveling to the United States would be faced with £520 in APD taxes, up from £160 in 2006.

Among the organizations participating are the Air Line Pilots Association, the Air Transport Association, American Gaming Association, the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the American Society of Travel Agents, Global Business Travel Association, International Air Transport Association, NTA (formerly the National Tour Association), the U.S. Travel Association and many others