Chancellor George Osborne announced in the 2014 UK Budget speech that he would introduce a drastic reform of Air Passenger Duty from April 1, 2015.
From next year, all long haul flights will carry the same, lower, band B tax rate. This means that customers travelling to and from South Africa, and via the UK to other long haul destinations will pay significantly less APD. South Africa is currently in the higher, band C.
The Chancellor said in his budget speech: “We will reform APD to end the crazy system where you pay less tax travelling to Hawaii than you do travelling to China or India.”
The airline industry has welcomed the announcement. A statement from Virgin Atlantic said: “A two band APD rate is a very welcome simplification to remove some of the biggest distortions of the current system. The government has rightly recognised the damage APD is having on exporters and the travelling public alike.”