So all us rich people living or working in London area should be ripped off and pay for the poor regional airports to send passengers away
BUT in reality with reference to APD is that realistically going to happen, I just don't see it personally.
If airline X based in say US has a spare aircraft and they have a slot available to operate into LHR, THAT is where they are going to operate regardless of an APD subsidy elsewhere.
BUT if the same airline has the opportunity of operating to a more marginal destination , say Dublin (No APD) or Manchester (Full APD) and taking all other factors into account it could be that an unrestricted Dublin scores !
Introducing a zero rate will only work where the two competing airports are in a similar market !
My beef is that Manchester is in my view penalised against other European Airports, not London !
Zero APD at Exeter, Southampton, Norwich etc etc is simply not going to make any difference to LHR !
AND yes it might be a back door method to subsidise the Newquay - London, maybe Cameron had his hand twisted by the Lib dems in the West Country.