Tax Hike Being Proposed For Flights From South East England Airports

Passengers using London Heathrow Airport amongst other South-East England airports may very well have to pay steeper taxes while buying their air tickets for these airports. The proposal for the higher taxes is an attempt to decongest the overcrowded terminals of the South East England airports. The coalition government is studying plans to put a lower tax on travel from Northern England than South East England. Furthermore, Birmingham is being considered to be used as a London overspill airport, once Heathrow is stripped of hundreds of domestic and European flights.

The South Eastern airports will see a significant fall in traffic. For instance, London Heathrow, the worlds busiest airport serves about eighty per cent of the UK flights along with other South-East airports. Heathrow hosts innumerable full service regional and international airlines as well as low cost carriers popular for cheap flights.

Passengers and Regional Operators Take

Passengers already feel burdened by the current taxes on their tickets, especially considering the standard of airport facilities. This was recently evidenced by Heathrow Airport fiasco during the recent snow up and a higher tax is certainly not likely to go down well with travellers. According to some of the regional airport operators, uniform higher taxes will prompt bigger airlines to pull out of their airports and focus more upon the south-east airports. Many of these bigger airlines are also known to operate quite a few cheap flights to some of the popular destinations.

Reaction of the British Airports Authority (BAA)

Airport Passenger Duty (APD) on air tickets has shot up by more than four times since 2006, and the latest increase became effective from November, 2010. Presently, the Treasury raises some 3.8 billion annually. According to BAA, the owner of Heathrow, new differential tax, which has a punitive effect upon the South East, will lead to a situation of stiffer competition with airports like Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt for flights to growing economies like China and India. A BAA spokesman was quoted as saying We already have the highest aviation tax in the world in the UK and if we are looking at increasing taxes on Heathrow - the UK's only hub airport - we will simply make the country less competitive.

Comments by the Aviation Minister

According to the aviation minister, Ms Theresa Villiers, changing the Air Passenger Duty may result in tax slab rate introduction and relieve overcrowding in the London airports. Internet sources quoted her as saying It is not inconceivable that our tax reform might look at a higher tax to fly from congested South East airports. Regarding regional tax variations, Ms Villiers also said A key part of our approach is to create conditions for regional airports to flourish, and this also has the potential to help relieve overcrowding at south east airports.