BAA to increase landing fees by over 20%

Air passengers will face a rise in ticket prices of about 2 after new landing charges for Heathrow and Gatwick airports were announced today [}:)]

Charges can rise by 23.5% at Heathrow in the year 2008/2009, and increase by 21% at Gatwick according to reports today [:(!]

I'd say that's one heck of an inflation busting rise!!!!!

I wonder how much of these extra charges will filter down to improve passenger experiences...

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by clarkeysntfc
I wonder how much of these extra charges will filter down to improve passenger experiences...

Thats funny, good one [y]

[Neil]

The extra cost will apparently go towards helping improving the security at airports, amongst other things. Correct me if I am wrong but I am sure the justification for HUGE increase in the cost of a new passport was to improve security at airports. Seems to be an awful lot of money going on security, seems a very convenient reason to give nowadays[V]

BAA have a monopoly and the airlines can do bugger all about it, if they decide to leave there won't be a shortage of other airlines ready to take their slots.

[Darren Wheeler]

Some analysts think the hike will go to pay off the parent company's huge debt following the purchase of BAA. This comes the day after they sold the duty free wing for £546m.

[RichardMannion]

Originally posted by Darren Wheeler
Some analysts think the hike will go to pay off the parent company's huge debt following the purchase of BAA. This comes the day after they sold the duty free wing for £546m.

That is the crux of it. Ferovial 'bought' the company and in the process saddled it with billions in debt. I seem to remember them saying their interest payments have doubled to around £1.4bn a year now.

Darren hit the nail on the head.

It seems to have gone all quiet on the OFT forcing BAA to sell of LGW due to having a monopoly on UK airports.

Slightly related, the reason why the CAA have given the green light to BAA charging more for landing fees at LHR/LGW is apparently very closely connected to the lack of Air Traffic Controllers that CAA/NATS have currently.

[buns]

And to add insult to injury, there is a very good chance that the Chancellor will hike up taxes too in tomorrow's Budget[n]

buns

..indeed. Though I don't really understand what is meant by the BBC's prediction that the chancellor will 'transform air passenger duty into a tax on flights'.

???

Originally posted by McCoy
..indeed. Though I don't really understand what is meant by the BBC's prediction that the chancellor will 'transform air passenger duty into a tax on flights'.

???

The Chancellor previously announced that by 2009 APD would be removed and instead the airline would have to pay a tax levy on the flight - thus there would be no tax element to your ticket anymore. The airline wouldn't be able to apportion it out in advance without knowing the load so it would be absorbed into the normal flight cost. A punt with my crystal ball would see no tax payable on Miles Rewards but that miles required will go up.

I should add that this is supposed to reduce the number of empty seats as the tax will be the same regardless of load factor. If ture, we may well see some late booking bargains.

[RichardMannion]

I'm not defending the Chancellor or Labour government at all here as I can't stand them.

However airlines have had a stream of extra cash for years on this with APD and associated fees - how many people know that you can claim back any taxes/fees for flights booked that you don't take. Not many in reality, and then certain airlines make it difficult for you to claim them back if you need to and charge 'admin' fees that are nearly as much (or more) than the taxes/fees. So they've had a lovely large stream of revenue for years.

In reality though, I can only see airfares going up. Will make it interesting on certain routes that have low loads on a regular basis.

Will be interesting to see how it is applied for non-UK carriers flying into the UK.

Well the budget is over and I can't find any mention to changes to APD in the writeups so maybe he's shied away from it after all.
BTW this thread is going a little OT.

Originally posted by McMaddog
Well the budget is over and I can't find any mention to changes to APD in the writeups so maybe he's shied away from it after all.
BTW this thread is going a little OT.

Well I saw on the Sky News ticker:

'Revenue from Plane duty will increase by 10%'

I persume this is the APD?

Originally posted by willd
Well I saw on the Sky News ticker:

'Revenue from Plane duty will increase by 10%'

I persume this is the APD?

Finally managed to get the full speech:

to strengthen the environmental signal through taxation, forecast tax revenues from the new per plane duty, due to replace air passenger duty on 1 November 2009, will increase by 10% in the second year of operation

The Government began a consultation on the design of the new duty in January and welcomes responses by 24 April

Also note there is no distinction between passenger and non-passenger operations so assume it covers cargo flights too.