13/03/2006 / Tom

Obscene policy on flying

It really annoys me that the UK government is trying to expand the airline industry as much as they can, hiding the fact that UK Taxpayers are effectively subsidising airlines to the tune of £300 per person every year [1]. The UK airline industry receives an effective subsidy of £9.2 billion a year [2] because airlines pay no tax on fuel used, virtually no VAT and benefit from duty free. Other taxes such as income tax therefore have to be higher to subsidise the aviation industry.

[1] www.foe.co.uk Average calculated thus:- £9.2billion effective subsidy divided by number of UK tax payers, 29million

[2] Aviation Environment Federation report : ‘The Hidden Cost of Flying’,
February 2003.