Travelling by plane has taken a knocking in the past year or two, with many “green” groups blaming airplanes for the declining state of our environment. However, since the dawn of time man has wished to soar the skies and explore foreign lands, something many of us do at least once a year.
And in recent years we have been able to get to these distant locations for relatively cheap, in recent years air travel prices to European cities have been touted as low as some rail fares back home! Places like Germany, Prague and Amsterdam all cost next to nothing these days and has seen many countries such as Bulgaria and Tunisia’s tourism trade skyrocket as a result of people being able to afford cheaper flights to new places for holidays. The best prices have been normally for domestic flights and the usual cheap flights to Spain and other common holiday destinations.
The only trouble is that with all the pressure on governments to reduce emissions it is unfortunately the airline industry that is being targeted for extra taxes in November 2009. This extra taxation is being applied in an attempt to discourage people from flying in favour of other methods of transport where possible (Ferry, Car, and Train).
The pressure has recently come to a head with last year extra duty tax being applied to flights, £10 for short haul flights, and £40 for long haul flights. This caused some annoyance to customers who had already booked flights who were faced with not being allowed to fly if they didn’t pay up the difference either online or at the check in desk in some extreme cases. British Airways supported it’s customers by putting up the money for the passengers already booked before the change, costing a considerable £11 Million in order to do so.
This year the Conservative party (normally known for appealing for tax cuts) proposed an argument to charge purchase tax on domestic flights, but this statement was met with some scepticism from one tour operator who believes that the government could easily extend this idea to all flights, meaning that passengers could end up paying 17.5% extra on their flights.
The main worry for holiday makers is that the recent period of cheap flights is due to end due to the government coming down like a ton of bricks on anything that the public discovers as being cheap. Others believe that with the pressure to appear environmentally friendly, aviation is going to pay the price. Despite the UK being one of the few to have met its commitments with regards to the Kyoto Agreement.