Jamie Mulhall: We have a duty to air passengers to get rid of Air Passenger Duty

Jamie Mulhall is a Conservative councillor in Derby, Deputy Chairman of the LGBT+ Conservatives, and former Parliamentary Candidate for Derby South.

If there’s one tax that perfectly captures the worst of Treasury orthodoxy  short-term, anti-growth, and quietly regressive it’s Air Passenger Duty (APD).

Introduced in 1994 as a modest environmental levy, APD has morphed into one of the highest flight taxes in the developed world, penalising families, stifling regional airports, and undercutting our ambitions for Global Britain. At a time when the UK economy needs every lever pulled for growth, investment, and global connectivity, it’s time we took a serious look at cutting or abolishing this outdated charge.

Currently, APD adds £13 to £91 per passenger, depending on flight length and class.

For a family of four flying economy to New York, it’s £360 in tax alone before a single bag is checked in. By comparison, most EU countries charge less than half that, and some (like the Netherlands and Sweden) have scrapped long-haul equivalents altogether. The US and China charge no equivalent at all. According to Airlines UK, UK APD is the highest aviation tax in Europe and costs the industry over £3.6 billion per year. A 2023 report by CEBR (Centre for Economics and Business Research) found that scrapping APD entirely could:

• Add £2 billion to GDP annually
• Create up to 60,000 new jobs, mostly in aviation, tourism, and hospitality
• Increase international visitor spending by £1.6 billion per year

At a time when UK GDP per capita has flatlined and business investment remains sluggish, cutting APD is a low-cost, high-impact lever to stimulate demand especially across regional economies. APD doesn’t just hit holidaymakers it disproportionately damages regional airports and the communities they support.

Airports like Birmingham, Newcastle, and East Midlands are struggling to compete with European hubs where APD doesn’t exist. In fact, research from York Aviation shows that scrapping APD on regional departures could boost passenger numbers by up to 16 per cent, unlocking new routes and supporting levelling up. If we’re serious about spreading opportunity outside London, we must stop taxing it at take-off. One of Brexit’s big promises was that we would become a globally connected, competitive trading nation. That vision becomes harder to realise when we impose higher aviation taxes than our competitors.

International investors, tourists, students, and export markets rely on air travel. The City of London, tech clusters in Cambridge and Oxford, and manufacturing hubs in the Midlands all depend on strong aviation links. Yet APD makes the UK less attractive to global airlines and less connected to emerging markets. Even Heathrow has warned that the tax deters long-haul carriers from expanding routes.

Critics argue that APD is necessary to reduce emissions. But APD is a blunt, regressive instrument that does nothing to improve sustainability it simply makes flying more expensive. Cutting APD is a chance for the Conservative Party to send a clear message: we back working families, regional economies, and Global Britain.

It’s a policy that:

• Helps families afford travel
• Boosts jobs and tourism
• Aligns with levelling-up
• Supports exporters and investors
• Requires no complex structural reform just political will.

As a nation, we don’t need to fly less. We need to fly smarter, and cheaper.

And we should stop punishing those who seek to connect, trade, or visit their family abroad. Air Passenger Duty is a relic of a different era. It’s anti-growth, anti-consumer, and anti-competitive. It symbolises everything we Conservatives should be moving away from.

The case for abolishing it is clear: more jobs, more routes, more investment, and more opportunity. If we truly believe in a bold, outward-facing, post-Brexit Britain, then it’s time to unshackle our skies and let ambition take off.