Axing passenger duty on tickets could save dozens of plane routes and 8,000 jobs, study finds

Ministers have been urged to slash the price of holidaymakers’ plane tickets to save dozens of popular air routes and up to 8,000 jobs. A study, backed by senior Tory MPs, has revealed that by waiving air passenger duty for a year, the Government could save nearly half of the 130 air routes that would otherwise be lost due to the post-Covid collapse in air travel. The research by York Aviation, a research consultancy used by the Government for analysis, found that axing the duty would generate GBP8b for the economy by enabling crisis-hit airlines to put on more routes and flights for holidaymakers and business travellers. This is three times the amount the duty would raise in revenue for the Government and would protect 8,000 aviation jobs threatened in the downturn. UK air taxes, which add between GBP13 and GBP528 to the price of a ticket, are the highest in the world. Sir Graham Brady, chair of the influential Tory backbench 1922 committee, said: “We are in grave danger of causing real and lasting damage to UK aviation if measures are not taken to protect routes out of our airports and support the sector through what will be an extremely challenging 12 months. Almost alone within Europe we have been slow to appreciate the importance of aviation – not only as an industry that supports a million jobs – but as an enabler of the outward facing trading nation we wish to be.” <br/>