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Air Passenger Duty (APD) is about to rise on April Fools’ Day each this yr and subsequent. In Jeremy Hunt’s final funds as Tory chancellor, he imposed rises at or above the speed of inflation from 1 April 2025. His alternative, Labour’s Rachel Reeves, has stored these will increase and imposed extra of her personal from 1 April 2026.
APD is the tax that passengers aged 16 and over should pay when flying from most UK airports.
Air passenger responsibility is seen as an ideal tax by politicians. It’s tough to keep away from and simple to gather, as a result of airways do all of the work and ship the Treasury a cheque. Because the Treasury stated when publishing the rise: “HMRC won’t incur any prices making these modifications.”
APD is exclusive to the UK, and a subject of a lot controversy:
- Is it a “inexperienced” tax or just a revenue-raising system?
- Does it encourage much less damaging behaviour by travellers or inadvertently trigger extra hurt?
- Ought to it’s eradicated, as Michael O’Leary of Ryanair has said, or sharply elevated?
The controversy is about to accentuate, together with an growing variety of travellers avoiding APD via quite a lot of means.
These are the important thing questions and solutions.
A short historical past of air passenger responsibility?
The person liable for APD was the final Conservative chancellor of the twentieth century, Kenneth Clarke. He informed me: “Aviation was in an uncommon place in that it’s the one type of transport the place nobody was paying any tax on the gasoline that it makes use of.
“For years and years governments have regarded it as completely regular to impose tax on petrol, diesel gasoline and all the things utilized by land and sea. For historic causes no person was inserting any tax on air fares.
“For me that was an anomaly, not least as a result of individuals who use aviation are typically barely extra affluent than those that use different types of transport.”
As worldwide aviation agreements typically rule out a tax on jet kerosene, Mr Clarke as an alternative imposed air passenger responsibility of £5 on every European flight, and £10 on long-haul providers. It utilized to all passengers above one yr of age beginning a journey at a UK airport, and took impact in 1994 – only a yr earlier than easyJet began flying.
What has occurred since?
Largely, APD has elevated – partly as a result of it may be introduced as a “inexperienced” initiative, dampening demand for aviation. And lots of the individuals who pay it are overseas guests and don’t vote within the UK.
The subsequent chancellor, Gordon Brown, doubled the tax for business- and first-class seats. (One weird loophole, since closed, meant that passengers on the world’s most costly plane, Concorde, paid the identical as funds airline travellers to Morocco.)
Since 2016, APD has not utilized to under-16s travelling in fundamental economic system – however it’s payable for increased lessons.
In a uncommon counter to the final upward development, in 2023, Rishi Sunak halved air passenger responsibility on home flights – encouraging a transfer from rail, sea and street to air for journeys throughout the UK.
How is air passenger responsibility calculated?
The speed is dependent upon two components: the traveller’s ultimate ticketed vacation spot and the category of journey.
“Last ticketed vacation spot”
If you’re travelling on a “via ticket,” eg. Manchester-Amsterdam-Los Angeles or Birmingham-Frankfurt-Mumbai, the long-haul price applies (except you might be spending over 24 hours on the transit level).
Class of journey
In something however fundamental economic system, the next price is payable – and all passengers aged two or over should pay it. The additional tax is triggered by “a seat pitch in extra of 40 inches”.
Passengers on personal jets pay an unlimited quantity extra. These are outlined as: “Plane of 20 tonnes and above with fewer than 19 seats.”
By way of locations, there are 4 completely different classes: UK home flights, plus three lessons for worldwide journey.
- Band A: Locations overseas whose capital metropolis is 2,000 miles or much less from London. This covers all of Europe and elements of North Africa
- Band B: Locations whose capital metropolis is 2,001-5,500 miles from London
- Band C: Locations whose capital metropolis is over 5,500 miles from London
What are the charges?
From 1 April 2025, they’re as follows (second determine is for something however fundamental economic system):
- UK home £7 or £14
- Band A £13 or £28
- Band B £90 or £216
- Band C £94 or £224
For personal jets, the tax is between £84 and £647 per individual.
From 1 April 2026, they may all rise, as follows
- UK home £8 or £16
- Band A £15 or £32
- Band B £102 or £244
- Band C £105 or £253
For personal jets, the tax will likely be between £142 and £1,141 per individual.
What’s the impact on households?
For a household of 4 (with youngsters between two and 15), the overall APD from April 2026 will likely be:
- UK: £14 in fundamental economic system, £64 in premium economic system or higher.
- Europe: £30 or £128.
- Most long-haul locations: £204 or £976.
- Extremely-long-haul locations: £210 or £1,012.
How can I keep away from APD?
These are a number of the tax-avoiding choices:
1. Don’t fly.
2. Be underneath 16 and journey in fundamental economic system (or underneath two in enterprise class)
3. Fly into the UK on one airplane and out inside 24 hours on one other and have them each included in the identical ticket.
4. Be a pilot or member of cabin crew on responsibility.
5. Be repatriated after being refused admission to the UK.
6. Fly on a route from a UK airport that’s not topic to air passenger responsibility.
I can’t handle 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5; how do I discover an APD-free flight?
Fly from the Scottish Highlands and Islands Area, which incorporates Orkney, Shetland, the Western Isles, Oban, Campbeltown and Inverness.
Remarkably, even if you’re fly from Inverness to London Heathrow and onwards to a long-haul vacation spot, the tax saving applies. Flying from Aberdeen to Singapore on British Airways on 1 April, for instance, prices £583 return – however from Inverness the fare is simply £497, saving 15 per cent on the journey.
Lengthy-haul flights direct from Belfast are additionally freed from tax, however there are few of them. Be aware that you don’t save by flying to a different UK hub, as you do within the case of Inverness.
To be kinder to the planet, you may journey terrestrially to a overseas airport: by sea (or overland from Northern Eire) to Dublin; by sea to the Netherlands; or on a Eurostar prepare to Paris, Brussels or Amsterdam.
How can I scale back APD?
You possibly can fly to Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin or another European airport and purchase a separate ticket from there. For transatlantic flights, there’s an additional advantage of travelling through the Irish capital: you full US arrival formalities whereas at Dublin airport.
However you’ll assume the chance of a misconnection, and moreover as a result of the UK is so aggressive for air fares, you could not lower your expenses.
A wiser approach to do it’s to construct in a stopover of 24 hours or extra on the connecting level. The airline ought to robotically cost you the decrease price. In impact, since you might be saving £77 (in 2025-26), the chancellor is paying for a brief break for you.
Reykjavik and Istanbul are significantly good for North America and Asia/Africa respectively.
What if I fly in economic system on the primary leg however enterprise for the remainder?
If you’re on a via ticket, the business-class price applies to the entire journey.
If I ebook a flight and don’t present up for it, who will get the tax?
The airline. Whereas carriers accumulate APD as much as a yr prematurely, the duty to move it on to the federal government crystallises solely when the passenger flies. In idea you’ll be able to declare it again, however in apply some airways and journey brokers impose charges which are designed to render makes an attempt pointless – with a dealing with price that’s the identical or greater than the tax refund.
How do I get a refund of APD if I don’t journey?
Some carriers make it easy. EasyJet says: “When you cancel, miss or don’t take your flight … you’ll be able to declare a full refund of presidency tax for the flight(s) you don’t take. You are able to do this by contacting our Buyer Providers Group. That is most simply completed via the airline’s online chat.
British Airways says: “ If you don’t use your ticket, you’ll be entitled to say a refund of any taxes, charges and fees which you paid, much less an affordable service cost.” When you booked direct with BA, you employ the online refund portal.
Learn extra: Baggage allowance guide – luggage limits for British Airways, Ryanair, easyJet and more
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