Air Passenger Duty (APD) needs to be scrapped if tourism in the North is to grow, Ryanair deputy chief executive, Michael Cawley, has told Derry’s business owners.
Speaking at a Chamber of Commerce function in Derry, Mr Cawley called on the British Government to repeal the APD travel tax in order to stimulate jobs and tourism growth at the North’s airports which, he claimed, were operating “under a considerate disadvantage” to their counterparts in the Republic where the Dublin Government abolished a €3 travel tax from April.
Many other EU countries have also scrapped their travel taxes, including Belgium and Holland, have seen immediate benefits in their aviation industry.
Ryanair has allocated an additional one million passengers to the main Irish airports following the abolition of the tax by the Dublin government.
Mr Cawley said scrapping the APD would bring Northern Ireland in line with the South and generate much needed growth at its airports and for its tourism industry.
Mr Cawley told Derry’s business owners: “The UK Government’s APD tax is damaging Northern Ireland’s tourism. Northern Ireland cannot grow tourism by taxing visitors and raising airport charges to uncompetitive levels.
“Other EU countries have returned to growth by scrapping tourist taxes and cutting airport charges, in some cases to zero like Ireland and we urge Northern Ireland to now follow this lead.”
Ryanair passengers flying out of City of Derry AIrport to Britain pay £26 tax on a return ticket.
Mr Cawley’s comments have been endorsed by City of Derry Airport (CDA) where passengers currently are charged £26 in tax on a return ticket to anywhere in Britain.
Over 80% of all flights to and from Northern Ireland are to airports in Great Britain, this means that our passengers are charged APD on both legs of their journey.
A CDA spokesperson said: “Passengers also have other travel options if they wish to avoid the tax – they can drive or get the train.
“These options are very limited or non-existent for Northern Ireland travellers.
“Therefore APD has a disproportionate effect on Northern Ireland passengers because for many they have no choice but to fly.
“Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that has a land border with another EU state that has a different taxation system.
“From 1 April 2014 Ireland’s equivalent to APD is being abolished. This creates a competitive price differential that is encouraging passengers in ever greater numbers to fly from airports south of the border.
“The other effect of this tax differential is that airlines are choosing to put new flights into countries where there is no travel taxation.
“This makes it even more difficult to develop new routes to and from Northern Ireland.
All of Northern Ireland’s political parties and the Executive in Stormont agree that this tax is bad for Northern Ireland.”
The spokesperson concluded: “It is unfair, unjust and is detrimental to growth of the Northern Ireland economy. It is imperative that our politicians persuade the Exchequer in London to reduce or remove this tax in order to facilitate the connectivity Northern Ireland needs for business, leisure and tourism.”
Tags: