24 January 2011
Ian Murray (Edinburgh South, Labour): Asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the monetary value of amounts paid by prospective air passengers to carriers but not then paid to HM Revenue and Customs as air passenger duty as a result of cancelled or missed flights in (a) 2008, (b) 2009 and (c) 2010.
Justine Greening (Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Conservative): APD is an excise duty that is levied on aircraft operators, not individual passengers. It is the airline, which is responsible for paying the tax to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Although they are not required to do so by law, generally airlines pass on the duty charge to their passengers by way of a separately identified charge in the ticket price, which may also include other elements such as passenger service charges, insurance surcharges or tax imposed by other governments. Since any additional charges applied at the discretion of the airline are outside the remit of HMRC, no estimates of their value are available.
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