Aviation tax to cause huge loss for Scotland
21-Feb-2011 The increase in Air Passenger Duty (APD) is deemed to cost the Scottish economy a GBP77-million loss in tourism, while hindering the growth of Scotland’s international route network.
The Scottish airports, namely, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, are expected to lose approximately 1.2-million passengers over the next three years, including 150,000 inbound international visitors. Domestic routes will be hit the hardest with an expected loss of 500,000 passengers. Amanda MacMillan, managing director, Glasgow Airport, was quoted in Travel Daily UK as having said that given the importance of tourism to the national economy and the number of jobs the airports provide, they believed ministers must look again at the impact of this damaging and unfair tax.
Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands are among the European competitors that either reduced or abolished aviation duty to boost air travel.