APD - You can lead a horse to water but can't MAKE it drink!

TWO TIER APD FOR REGIONAL AIRPORTS MOOTED

Media reports are now claiming that the Government are considering proposals put forward by Merseyside's John Peel airport to tweak APD by reducing the amount of duty for passenger flying from regional airports.  The recently much mauled Treasury Minister Chloe Smith has apparently admitted she had discussed the proposal when visiting with the airport's operators.  The effect of this self-serving proposal would be that APD would be increased at Heathrow and Gatwick to compensate for the "loss" incurred.  The Merseyside originators of this plan clearly believe that European business people and tourists (especially keen Beatles fans) will be attracted to the North's regional airports.  NB Merseyside has only European routes at present which carry the £13 economy APD rate for Europe. 

The fact is that, as the caption infers, you might try to make Merseyside (and other regional airports) more attractive by reducing regional APD, but you are unlikely to change traditional traffic patterns.  The majority of the UK's overseas visitors come via Heathrow and Gatwick.  An increase
in APD at these airports would be wrong for two reasons:-

A. It is an additional deterrent tax on the UK's inbound tourism and on outbound and inbound business passengers. Between them they carried 103.2 million passengers in 2011 - nearly half of all UK  passenger traffic.

Viz.  Heathrow Stats

Number of passengers arriving and departing per day: average 190,100 (split 50/50 between arriving and departing)

Number of passengers arriving and departing in 2011: 69.4 million

Percentage of international passengers in 2011: 93% (64.7 million)

Percentage of business travellers in 2011: 37.1% (26.0 million)

Percentage of other leisure travellers in 2011: 62.9% (43.4 million)

Percentage of transfer passengers in 2011: 34.6% (24.0 million)

Viz. Gatwick Stats

Average number of daily passengers: 92,650

Total number of passengers 2011/12: 33.8 million

Busiest day ever recorded: 17 August 2008, 137,166 passengers

Busiest year: 2007/08, 35.6 million

B. To make APD less expensive for working families in the North at the expense of those in the South East would not be fair or democratic.

The fairest and undoubtedly the best solution would be to reduce, preferably to cut APD entirely .  That's not going to happen whilst the Government is struggling to reduce the national debt inherited from the previous Government.