UK Airlines Lobby To Abolish APD

The tourism industry in St Lucia and the Caribbean have for a long time been trying to get the Airport Passenger Duty (APD) abolished in the UK. Now they have some support from the major airlines.

Virgin and British Airways (who both fly to St Lucia) and other airlines are trying to lobby the UK Chancellor to scrap the APD as they believe it affects jobs and the industry. George Osborne, the Chancellor, is putting together his budget for the year and is coming under extensive pressure to avoid a triple dip.

The UK was placed last (out of 139 countries) in the World Economic Forum report on ticket tax and airport charges. So this is cannot be good. The airlines hope to convince the Chancellor that by removing the APD the economy would be boosted with an extra 60000 jobs and the UK GDP would grow by 16billion pounds. These figures were calculated by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) using the UK Treasury’s own economic model – so there must be some truth in it.

It has to be remembered that this year that the APD will raise 2.9billion pounds – not a sum the Chancellor will want to give away easily.

As Caribbean’s premier luxury villa rental we are keen to support anything which increases tourism for the region and hope the airlines are successful in their lobbing. This will help to increase jobs in the UK and the Caribbean.

If you would like to book your holiday in St Lucia then just complete the form on the site for your quote from the owners of the villa.