British Airways cuts down flights to Caribbean

British Airways responded to the high APD rates by announcing a cut down in the number of flights to Caribbean.

BA explained the move by explaining the effect of high ‘Air Passenger Duty’ tax on its regular operations to Caribbean. It also urged the government to reconsider such hefty hikes in taxes before it ruins the tourism industry. The Airline said that the recent spates of tax hikes has worst affected the UK travel industry in years.

To keep its now redundant planes in use, the Airline would increase the number of flights to Florida, where the ADP are fairly lower, at 20% lesser than that of Caribbean destinations. Interesting to note is that there is no such tax in 22 EU countries.

The APD works on the distance between London and the capital city of the destination country. Applying this, Caribbean loses out even when it is nearer than Florida, in which case distance between London and New York is used for APD.