Originally Posted by
PDXCWL45
The WG has fought for quite a while for APD to be devolved so they would do something, even if it's just cutting it by 25% or 50% or putting it on a sliding scale by the length of the flight.
As for the level playing field card, i have always found it interesting that airports the size of Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol see Cardiff as being either a worry or in their league as to lobby so hard against APD being devolved. If you look at CWL's growth lately, it's not effecting any of those airports growth at all and for MAN CWL's numbers are a drop in the ocean. Though of course what they don't want to admit is that the playing field is tipped vastly in their favour and they don't want that to change.
Genuine question: why are the scales tipped in the larger airports' favour? You've mentioned this a few times. This implies there's some legal/regulatory/subsidy-drive action which is creating an uneven playing field and that Cardiff is somehow being treated unfairly. Aside from the choice of the market supported by circumstances such as population, economic activity or geographic location, I don't see that Cardiff is at a disadvantage ..... but maybe I've misunderstood your point.
I'm not against devolved powers btw, or indeed Wales setting its APD. But if this was the case, and given the WAG's taxpayer-funded subsidies, surely the scales are being tipped in Cardiff's favour?