UK airports expect passenger numbers to fall
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Over half of the UK’s airports expect passenger numbers to decrease next year if the planned increase in Air Passenger Duty (APD) goes ahead as planned.
A survey of 26 UK airports – conducted by the Airports Operators Association – published how routes are affected by current APD levels and how future increases could interfere with traffic.
A quarter of all airports confirmed that they expect passenger numbers to fall by more than 5% because of George Osborne’s expected 2.5% APD increase, which is due to be announced on Wednesday.
Three quarters (73%) of all airports questioned confirmed that they were “very worried” by the increase while 83% believed that current APD levels are already having an impact on whether airlines fly from their airports.