Newspaper asks 'are we paying too much to fly from Norwich Airport?'
27.01.06
The Norwich Evening News asks 'are we paying to much to fly from Norwich Airport?' The newspaper details the case of a husband and wife who have turned their backs on Flybe flights from Norwich International Airport because they claim the taxes the airline puts on its flights makes it cheaper to travel more than 80 miles to Stansted Airport.
Airport bosses and Flybe insist Norwich offers the better deal for passengers, despite the heftier taxes, because of the convenience of jetting off so close to home. But some regular travellers told the newspaper that taxes on the Flybe flights from Norwich mean they were not as cheap as they had hoped and they were considering reverting to flying from Stansted.
Richard Jenner, managing director of Norwich airport, said: 'What Flybe calls the airport tax is not actually the airport tax. We charge Flybe a flat figure per passenger which is a deal we made with them when they came here for things like handling passengers and security and it's a lot less than £42.'
'How they come to that figure I don't know but it will include the taxes at the other end and the airport passenger duty, a government tax. Small regional airports tend to be more expensive because we have a smaller volume of traffic and we have still have to run traffic control and have a fire service. I do not think are charges our unreasonable. I would not agree it's cheaper to fly from Stansted by the time you have taken into account fuel and airport parking charges.'
A Flybe spokeswoman said: 'Flying from Norwich cuts out the hassle of long car journeys to alternative airports making the journey time door to door faster and more convenient. Flybe is fully committed to Norwich and the bookings for summer 2006 are substantially ahead of expectations.'
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