I know the closure of PLH isn't just about APD - combining flights with NQY never made much sense imho - but paying two sets of APD on domestic flights can't help when most of your routes are domestic.
Today is also the closure of consultation on High Speed Rail - billed as a way of transferring pax from air to rail, but this modal shift has already occured on LON-MAN, especially with LCY-MAN going.
For London - LPL / MAN / LBA / NCL, rail is already a good alternative to air (where air routes remain). But APD is billed as a 'green' tax, which would be fine if it was an incentive to switch from air to rail - AND the rail infrastructure was already built, not a consultation!
Airports in NI are also doubly discriminated against because there is no feasable rail alternative across the Irish Sea, and because the Irish eqv is so much lower.
UK govt will never scrap APD - we know that, but is there a way they can stop the way UK domestic routes get such a rough deal?