The old adage in the UK travel industry used to be - "Punters will walk across the street for a quid". For lay or not Brit-speak folks - a Consumer would rather save a pound and walk to another high street travel agency.
Well it seems that the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer despite having been previously the Minister of Transport had not heard that saying.
Alistair Darling (like his leader a rather dour Scotsman), has significantly elevated the UK Air Duty. Much to the outcry of the industry, the new duty penalizes long haul. Ostensibly for reasons of applying a green tax. However he may come to regret his format.
The tax can only be imposed on the first sector. Therefore the departure tax for a flight connection into Europe could easily save a UK family of 4 up to GBP200 per trip. Thus for example a BA based holiday for 4 to Australia will be 200 pounds more expensive than for the same flight booked via Air France or Lufthansa.
Talk about pound foolish!
At a time when BA's whole business model is under threat because of the appalling infrastructure issues at its main base LHR (on which we have commented frequently). This will just add to BA's woes. It will however badly impact also BMI and Virgin.
Clearly the UK government has no clue about how the airline business works.
Have a nice day.
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