Airport Tax from the UK

[whitedesire]

In the UK Budget just, the chancellor has cut air passenger duty for long haul flights. Every little bit helps.

[Jun]

I think he had to do that.

Many people going long haul from the North of the country need to get a connecting flight anyway.
Now if they connect via Heathrow, there's a massive tax on the flight.

If they connect via Amsterdam, there's no tax at all, so Heathrow and it's airlines lose the business. Plus there's no tax for our greedy government.

Competition can even keep governments in check.

[billyhouston]

If they connect via Amsterdam, there's no tax at all, so Heathrow and it's airlines lose the business. Plus there's no tax for our greedy government.

Alas this is not correct. If the flight from the European Airport is deemed 'connected' then Air Passenger Duty is levied, by the UK, in respect of the final destination. For the flight not to be 'connected' there must be a full 24 hours between the scheduled arrival in Europe and the scheduled departure for the final destination.

Clearly there are two ways around this. Stop-over in Amsterdam, or wherever, for more than 24 hours, or purchase separate tickets. Most tickets do not permit a stop-over of more than 24 hours and the purchase of separate tickets can be more expensive than the single ticket, even with APD. It's considerably cheaper for me to fly, as I do, MAN - CDG - BKK return than for a Frenchman to fly CDG - BKK and back. In the old days you would just tear off the first coupon and that would be the end of it, but with computers that's not possible and my ex-MAN ticket conditions are very specific that you must fly the MAN - CDG sector.

Air France cannot fill the (468-seat) 777-300ER from Paris to Bangkok without feeding in from other European cities and they encourage people to take advantage of that by pricing the seats accordingly.