Air Passenger Duty warning
Travelzoo, the travel deals experts, today warned that substantial increases to Airport Passenger Duty (APD), which came into force yesterday for all routes out of the UK may come as an unwelcome surprise to many holidaymakers.
It strongly advised that travellers check that advertised travel prices do include the new taxes.
The rise in APD will affect all passengers flying out of the UK from 1 November. Travelzoo believes many people in the UK are still not fully aware of the changes to APD, which will rise by as much as 50% on some routes out of the UK.
Phil Salcedo, publisher at Travelzoo UK, explains: "We don't sell holidays. We review thousands every year and then publish the best deals we find. But, we always test each price we use to make sure it's available and not misleading. The sad fact is that around 30% of the travel deals that we check simply don't include taxes in the price. This means that, with this new increase in tax, travellers need to be extra wary and make sure the price they expect to pay doesn't massively increase when they get to a page of taxes. We don't think this is fair and we won't feature or recommend deals from any travel company that doesn't publish taxes and charges up front.
"We know from our subscribers that, even if they have heard of the forthcoming rises, APD is still them causing huge confusion. So Travelzoo will be creating an information source on its UK website, explaining how the charges work and how UK travellers will be affected. Our aim is to make choosing a good-value holiday a painless experience for our 2 million UK subscribers, and we believe it is important to explain the changes in plain English."
The changes to APD are already provoking strong feeling in the travel industry. Most hotly debated is the decision to categorise countries into bands according to their capital city's distance from the UK. This decision has led to anomalies, in particular for flights to large countries such as the US, where it is possible to travel to the state of Hawaii and pay less tax than if you travel to the Caribbean, which is much closer. This clearly goes against the principle of APD rises, which are intended to charge higher prices for flights that cover more air miles.
A similar anomaly arises when comparing the price of a holiday to Turkey to a holiday to Egypt. Turkey falls into Band A, while Egypt is classed as Band B. This means a family of four travelling in economy class to Turkey will pay £48 APD in comparison to £240 in APD for the same family to travel to Egypt - an increase of £192 in tax alone.
Salcedo concludes: "Those most affected by these changes will be families as they will be travelling in larger groups and all children over the age of two are subject to the full APD price hikes. Business Class passengers will also be badly affected, as APD in the higher bands will be increased by as much as 60%. The only consolation is that if passengers are upgraded they will not be stung for the higher-priced APD, so the joy of the 'free upgrade' will be allowed to continue - at least for now."
To view Travelzoo's APD Explained information, visit: travelzoo.com