Transport statistics released today show that airport passenger numbers have increased by 3.6 per cent in 2014, and by 15 per cent since 2010.
Mike Robinson, an SCCS board member who sits on the Scottish Government Air Passenger Duty (APD) stakeholder forum commented:
“Yet again, these figures reinforce the fact that it is utterly unnecessary to abandon APD – the tax generates £230m/yr for the Scottish Government and hasn’t inhibited air passenger numbers. It’s a tax that customers are prepared to tolerate, in an industry that is regarded as under-taxed, so why scrap it?
“Air travel has the highest climate emissions of any form of transport and emissions from the sector have risen significantly over the past 20 years. We should use Air Passenger Duty powers to reduce overall climate emissions.”
