UK Chancellor George Osborne announced a reduction in British airport departure tax to certain destinations, but it will not apply until April 1, 2015.

UK passengers on long-haul flights will benefit from an overhaul of the much-hated Air Passenger Duty (APD) airport departure tax.

Announcing changes in the Budget last Wednesday, Chancellor George Osborne admitted the current system was “crazy and unjust” in that passengers travelling on, say, eight-hour flights from the UK to Barbados pay more APD than those on 11-hour flights to California.

Those on ultra long-haul flights to destinations such as Australia and southeast Asia pay even more in APD.

Mr Osborne said he was scrapping the two highest of the four APD tax bands so that those on long-haul flights pay only as much as they do now travelling to the US. UK airlines, travel companies and Caribbean tourist boards have long bemoaned the APD system and there was a cautious welcome to the changes.

A Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman said: “A two-band APD rate is a very welcome simplification to remove some of the biggest distortions of the current system, which the Chancellor himself admitted is crazy and unjust.

“The British government has rightly recognised the damage APD is having on exporters and the travelling public alike.”

She went on: “A tax system which penalised high-growth emerging economies such as China and India was always contrary to the government’s stated policy on trade and exports, so this is a positive step that recognises the impact of this economically damaging tax.

“There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the huge economic benefits to the UK of reducing or abolishing APD and we hope that the government will continue to go further in the long run.”

A British Airways spokeswoman said: “This is window dressing a tax that even George Osborne says is ‘crazy’. It still punishes families. The only long-term solution is to scrap APD in its entirety and allow the aviation and tourism industries to flourish. APD remains the highest aviation tax levied in the world.”

In the meantime, air passengers will have to put up with the present four-band APD system, as the changes will not take effect until April 1, 2015.

Travellers will also have to contend with an RPI-inflation rise in the system from April 1 this year and another on the new, two-band system from April 1 next year.