While not an apologist for Labour (New or Old) it should be noted that APD was originally introduced by the Tories (I should know - I had a slanging match in my office about it with Nicholas Soames who was, at the time, Tory MP for Crawley). The excuse for its introduction was to compensate for the fact that aviation fuel is not taxed. Every time the eco warriers start going on about the fact that aviation fuel is not taxed we all, as an industry, need to shout back "THAT ISWHY WE HAVE APD". I don't think these increases will have any significant effect, any more than cutting VAT from 17.5% to 15% will stimulate sales (you never see M&S, Debenhams etc advertising their 2.5% off sales - its always 20%+). I don't think its really fair to paint Labour as totally anti aviation. Some vociferous back benchers certainly but if they give the go ahead for a new runway at LHR......