Travel News - Las Palmas
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FTO to challenge APD
Tour operators are to launch a legal challenge against air passenger duty (APD), which they claim breaches international aviation agreements. The Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) is leading the campaign against APD, claiming that it contravenes human rights laws and the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation.
It wants to see the tax scrapped altogether and if it is successful in its challenge, could force the government to pay back more than £2 billion to passengers and airlines affected by the charge.
FTO director general Andrew Cooper said: "As a tax levied on passenger numbers not aircraft, its effects are perverse in that it penalises environmentally-friendly airlines with high load factors and rewards those with half empty flights."
APD was introduced in 2004 but the fees were doubled earlier this year, with passengers on short-haul economy flights to popular tourist destinations such as Malaga, Las Palmas and Alicante now paying £10.
The prices then range up to £80 for first class passengers on long-haul journeys to places such as Orlando Sanford.
Article ID: 18072372, Posted: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 17:06:14 GMT
