AOA chief slams 'unfair' passenger duty

The UK government must go further in its revision of air passenger duty (APD), Airport Operators' Association (AOA) Chief Executive Rob Siddall has told Jane's .

"We are pleased that they abandoned it and chose to have a revised APD but we still don't think it is enough," he said. "APD penalises certain types of traveller. Given how hard the recession is now biting, AOA is urging the government to review the planned increases in APD and avoid placing even more burden on the sector when parts of it are struggling to hold up."

Commenting on the government's decision to abandon the new aviation duty, Siddall said: "We were very pleased that it was abandoned, we worked very hard to make representations to show the difficulties with that tax and feel that we were a key player in having that tax abandoned."

The UK government announced on 24 November 2008 that it would be raising APD by more than 10 per cent from 1 November 2009, while abandoning plans to replace the tax with a new aviation duty.