APD shoots UK tourism in the foot.
With the closure of PLH to pax flights today,it looks like another case of APD shooting UK tourism in the foot.
I have no gripe with the reasons for APD (well, it would be nice to see some hypothecation to environmental projects) - but because past & present UK governments have chosen to bring it up, whilst goverments across Europe have brought it down or scrapped it, there is a huge imbalance between passengers taking UK domestic flights (get stung twice) and those who are exporting their pounds to spend in other countries.
I understand that the govt can't just halve APD for domestic routes, as that would set the EU onto us quick-smart - although iirc, other countries apply VAT on domestic flights instead of APD. Would that be a fairer tax, as it would be proportional to the cost of the ticket? Failing that, is there any mechanism to charge an 'arrival fee' on inbound international legs - or could that only be done by issuing visas on arrival, clearly a non-starter?