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Chancellor harming aviation industry with ‘smash and grab’ approach

The North East Chamber of Commerce has said that the Chancellor’s new Air Passenger Duty is nothing more than a smash and grab on the air industry.

Yesterday, MPs acknowledged that Alistair Darling’s APD is a revenue raising tool. Ross Smith, NECC head of policy, believes this will greatly harm the North East’s economic recovery and can prove detrimental for the region’s business ties.

He said: “It’s clearly not acceptable for Alistair Darling to do a smash and grab on the air industry if it means threatening links to vital international markets for North East businesses.

“In the light of this, we repeat our call for him to review the levels of APD in his Pre-Budget statement on Wednesday.”

The Commons Transport Committee is clear in its statement that the APD is not a ‘green tax’ as has been maintained by the chancellor.

It states: “It is right that the aviation sector should be contributing its fair share to government revenues. The level of APD should be set to the government’s needs, taking careful account the economic importance of the aviation industry.

“It also needs to be mindful of the aviation industry in the current recession and take account of competition from other European airports.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .