Re the discussion in the previous posts, the Westminster government has three proposals out for discussion to mitigate the effects of APD devolution to Scotland, and possibly to Wales, and has been seeking responses from various groups and organisations.
1. Devolve APD to local authorities or combined local authorities.
2. Vary APD in England with the Westminster government retaining control.
3. Provide aid to regional airports.
The snag with the first is that a sum of money equal to the amount raised in APD through those airports in an area would be deducted from the Westminster grant to the local authority or combined local authority. The local authority would then have to decide by how much (if at all) it could reduce or even abolish APD in its area.
The government itself accepts that its second proposal might not be legal and was going to seek the views of the European Commission on its legality.
The third proposal could only be applied to airports with a throughput of less than 3 mppa and exceptionally to airports between 3 mppa and 5 mppa.
https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...l_airports.pdf