Devolution of APD to Wales has been in the minds of senior Wales government figures for a number of years and the First Minister has often mentioned the potential benefits of such a move for Cardiff Airport.
In 2011 the Westminster government held a consultation into APD with devolution one of the issues that resulted in nothing being decided in relation to Wales or Scotland. In other words, it was placed in the too-hard-to-do basket at that time.
The then Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Justine Greening, said in a letter to my MP at the time of the consultation that 'several airports, airlines and individuals have raised concerns regarding the potential distortion arising from differential APD rates between Cardiff and Bristol, as well as between Newcastle and Scottish airports'.
In November 2012 the Silk Commission, set up by the Welsh Secretary to report on all aspects of Devolution in Wales, presented its report on fiscal powers and recommended, inter alia, that several smaller types of tax should be devolved to Wales, including long haul APD in the first instance.
There is now an ongoing Westminster Transport Select Committee enquiry into the government's aviation strategy and one of the specific issues to be considered is APD.
The Davies Commission, though not specifically charged with looking at APD, is to report on airport capacity and related matters so it's difficult to believe that APD will not feature in the deliberations no matter how indirectly. The full Davies report is not expected until after the next General Election.
The Bristol Airport CEO has been vocal and consistent in his opposition to pubic money skewing his market, with direct reference to Wales, and recently the Birmingham Airport CEO has said much the same thing.
Although it would undoubtedly be a benefit to Wales and its main airport if APD was to be devolved, so it would to airports such as Durham Tees Valley or even Exeter, where Bristol Airport takes a significant slice of Devon and Cornwall traffic as it does Welsh traffic, if those airports enjoyed a less onerous APD rate.
CWL would be in an incredibly advantageous position if APD was to be devolved to Wales as it would effectively be able to set its own APD rates whilst it remained owned by the Wales government.
This issue will not go away and at some point the politicians will have to decide one way or the other. At present it just lies smouldering in the long grass.