The UK media is giving prominence today to a new tax on air travel due to be imposed on all travellers from UK airports as from Monday.
The Dail Mail says that the huge increases in the Air Passenger Duty could make family holidays a thing of the past for many.
Airport tax will leap by up to 55 per cent from Monday, adding hundreds of pounds to the cost of family holidays abroad.
Fortunately for Malta – which receives a third of its tourism from the UK – the steepest increases are on long-haul travel.
The increases in Air Passenger Duty (APD) will push up the tax on a family of four’s trip to the Far East or Australia by £240 to £680. Those in economy face an increase of £120 to £340.
However, even short-haul flights are affected. APD on economy flights of up to 2,000 miles goes up from £11 to £12, while the figure for premium seats rises from £22 to £24.
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic airline warned that the rises will make family holidays ‘unaffordable for many’.
British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh branded APD a ‘disgrace’, while organisations from Ryanair to package holiday firms to the Association of British Travel Agents lined up to condemn it.
APD was initially introduced as a ‘green tax’ on the basis it would discourage people from flying and cut carbon emissions. However, it became a cash cow for the last UK government and the present coalition, with annual revenue set to rise from £2.3billion to £3.8billion by 2015.
The Daily Express said the tax increase will put family holidays “beyond many people’s reach.
It said half of families surveyed said the additional costs would put them off travelling abroad at a time when many needed respite from penny-pinching at home.
And in a double-blow the levy – which will be applied only by Britain – will also hit the number of tourists going to the UK and could seriously damage the UK tourism industry.
The tax divides flights into four bands, based on distance. The first category is for short haul travel to a destination within a 2,000 mile radius from London, which includes Malta.
The Daily Telegraph has run a petition calling on the Government to scrap the tax, arguing it penalises travellers, while the very rich on private jets are immune from the duty.
Last week, hoteliers in Malta expressed concern about the effect the austerity measures announced in the UK last week could have on tourism, given that Britain remains the island’s biggest market.
George Micallef, president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, speaking before the VAT on local hotel accommodation was announced, said hoteliers were already facing requests from tour operators for prices next year to remain at this year’s level or even be reduced.
“They are putting a lot of pressure on us because they know holidays are very much price-driven. Tour operators want us to make cuts to prices we had established before our running costs sky-rocketed with increases in water and electricity bills, among others.
“Although it is still early to pre-empt the effect of the UK spending cuts, this is an indication of what we’re up against and certainly a threat to the Maltese tourism industry,” he said.
Tourism Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco had said that while it was too early to predict the effects, anything that affected consumer confidence could affect tourism.