30th March, 2011
Following the announcements in the Budget on 23rd March that plans for APD to be replaced by a per-plane tax are to be shelved and increases in APD deferred till 2012, but that the Government will seek to bring private jets into the scope of aviation taxation (a loophole AEF has often highlighted), we put out a response the same day which was picked up by several outlets including Bloomberg, The Scotsman and FlightGlobal.
We have also been working on international climate issues. Tim attended a gathering in Delhi of government and industry representatives (organised by the British High Commission and the Confederation of Indian Industry), which focussed on how to address aviation’s climate impact through fuel efficiency improvements and market-based measures. And he has been continuing to work on ICAO’s guidance on how states should develop their action plans for tackling CO2 from aviation.
Finally, Katie has been liaising with AEF members to gather their views on the effectiveness of Airport Consultative Committees (designed to encourage communication between airports and local communities), to inform our input to the Government’s review, expected this summer, of the current guidelines on the committees.