On November 29 the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, will present his autumn statement to the UK Parliament. While it is by no means definite that he will address the issue of Britain’s discriminatory Air Passenger Duty (APD), there are indications that around that time the UK Treasury will publish the outcome of the APD consultation that the British government initiated earlier this year.
For those who do not know, APD is a controversial UK tax on airline tickets, based on the distance flown, grouped within four distance bands. This means for the Caribbean, placed in Band C, the UK tax added onto a coach class ticket is US$121 (£75) and US$241 (£150) on a premium economy, club or first class ticket. This compares with charges respectively for the US of US$96 (£60) and US$193 (£120) in Band B even though the flight might be to San Francisco or Hawaii.
All bands in 2012 are to be increased by
