Oh I love assumptions on these threads. Leftbank did you have a few to drink when you showed up during your research visits at various UK airports?
Air traffic in the last published rolling 12 months shows that traffic grew by 2.3% following a growth of 5% in 2011, while capacity grew by 6%.
The tax has no effect on growth, so I say, increase the lot of them. 13 quid for a EU departure is a joke, most locos charge more for baggage and card fees.
Of course this government, or any for that matter is not going to abolish APD, an easy to collect tax that has no bearing on passenger numbers and one that the business community does not pay anyways so has no bearing on economic growth. So let's tax the luxury of foreign holidays a bit more I reckon as a penalty for spending pounds oversees, there must surely be a level to which APD can be increased that would have little to no effect on traffic but would have an effect on domestic spending.