The association claims the tax hike will mean families are priced out of the premium economy cabin.
‘Premium economy has been created by the industry to give customers an affordable alternative to first or business class,’ ABTA said.
‘It allows economy class passengers who might be visiting relatives in long-haul destinations such as Australia or the Caribbean affordable comfort.
‘However, from November 2010, a family of four travelling to Australia in premium economy will have to pay an extra £680 in tax.
‘The UK Government is the only one in the world to tax air passengers in this way and these rises will hit ordinary working families particularly hard as they struggle with the impact of the recession.’
From November 2009 APD on flights over 6,000 miles from London is set to rise to £55 on economy and £110 on premium economy, business and first class tickets.
A further increase from next November will see the tax increase to £85 and £170 respectively.
ABTA has drawn up an online petition calling on the Government to reconsider the hike, which can be accessed from
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/APDIncrease/.
See also:
Government ‘taxing families out of the sky’ (05/08/2009)
PSA backs ABTA's APD campaign (22/07/2009)
Budget update: Govt to review APD definition (22/03/2007)