The Airline news and travel blog service

The Con-Lib coalition are committed to reducing public spending and increasing tax income but are wary of hikes in headline income tax. Enter the Air Passenger Duty as a likely candidate for milking. Treasury forecasts show that the £1.9bn raised last year will become £3.8bn in 2014-15.

BA’s Willie Walsh said: "APD on long-haul routes will have tripled in four years. We are in severe danger of pricing large numbers of people out of flying."

The airline industry lost a collective £31bn over the last decade and is now being faced with punitive tax burdens including a $10bn tax contribution towards the United Nation's Copenhagen accord on climate control.

For BA, the more immediate worry is Government's plans to switch the current APD regime from a passenger to a per-plane tax. For BA, this is not just about the tax burden. They see a risk of traffic being diverted through hubs outside the UK, giving minimum reduction in carbon emissions and maximum damage to BA’s long-haul business model.