With the dizzying climax of the UK General Election coming soon – as the UK members of the public go to the polls tomorrow, Ryanair has dropped this lovely advert in, with a cheeky reminder to vote for anyone against Air Passenger Duty
Here’s the advert.
Sadly, whilst the matter of Air Passenger Duty in the UK is becoming more devolved (The Northern Ireland assembly to an extent can set its own APD rates, whilst Scotland will soon be able to set its own rates, and consideration to Wales being able to set its own rates), unfortunately, I can’t see any government abolishing it.
Why? It pulls money straight into the coffers of HM Treasury or the regional assemblies, which goes into the big money pot that’s the UK budget or regional budgets to fund spending. It’s an easy tax to levy with no option of paying it if you want to get on a plane.
For ultra long haul fliers, Air Passenger Duty has gone under some reform (abandoning a hopelessly confusing four-band system to a simple two-band system), however it is a substantial lump of any ticket – even moreso when conducting redemptions (one of the reasons why I tend to begin any redemption outside the UK – even though France and Germany have their own variants of the Air Passenger Duty).
However, there does need to be further reform – and there may be no option once the regions of the UK start changing the rates of Air Passenger Duty charged regionally.
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