Brannap wrote: When will the government wake up to the damage that APD is doing to the UK's economy, airlines and airports?
But is it?
It hasn't stopped BA and VS starting new routes has it? e.g. VS to YVR
And Ryanair and Easyjet are always adding new destinations.
And DL started a NEW flight to BOS last year (or was it 2011?) and a LHR-SEA is starting next year - and that's just 2 off the top of my head.
And airlines are adding extra capacity by using the A380 and they wouldn't do that if the demand for seats wasn't there. And no they are not always consolidating two flights on a normal plane - they are keeping the number of flights per day.
And the UK is not the only country that has transportation taxes or departure taxes - and some of those are popular VS destinations.
And people will always try to reduce their impact e.g. the AMS 'trick' but in reality not enough people know of it / do it to impact that much on the overall revenue and if it started to fall then no doubt the regulations would soon be altered in some way.
As to Canada they have high taxes and fares too and people do the equivalent of AMS and drive to SEA rather than fly from YVR of Buffalo rather than Toronto.
Finally as for airports it hasn't stopped a US based firm buying LGW or EDI or the Spanish buying BAA (as was) and said firms investing heavily in new facilities.