Branson vows to fight APD increases at Tokyo flights celebration
02.06.09
Virgin Atlantic founder and President, Sir Richard Branson, used the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the airline's Tokyo flights to pledged to make planned increases in Air Passenger Duty (APD) a political issue with a high profile public awareness campaign, Travelmole reports.
Sir Richard joined other industry leaders in condemning planned rises in the tax and revealed that anti-APD messages would appear on Virgin tickets and on company websites. Speaking in Tokyo as the airline marked its 20th anniversary of flying to Japan, he warned that the hikes in APD were a threat to the livelihood of the whole British travel industry, with the next 12 months expected to be ‘the bloodiest year in aviation history’.
He said the government is bringing in £3 billion a year through APD, with no evidence that funds are going towards developing cleaner energy sources. Sir Richard told Travelmole: ‘The Chancellor must be careful not kill off the British economy by killing trade and killing off the British Travel industry. They have got to get the balance right. We will make it an electoral thing so passengers realise tat taxes on travel and holidays have gone up by 300% and that the money is not going towards helping the environment.’
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