UK flight tax cut spurs surge in domestic air links

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder’s Travel email Get Simon Calder’s Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, said the cut in tax from £13 to £6.50 on flights within the UK was responsible for the expansion. “The halving of APD on domestic flights from April 2023 has allowed Ryanair to add more domestic routes to our UK schedule for summer 2023,” he said. The travel editor of The Independent, Helen Coffey, who hasn’t taken a flight since 2019 due to the climate crisis, said: “This is exactly the result we would expect from the government needlessly slashing Air Passenger Duty on domestic flights. Halving APD on flights within the UK makes no sense whatsoever at a time when we crucially need to be lowering emissions to hit Net Zero by 2050.” Separately, Swansea airport in South Wales is planning a new link to Exeter in Devon from late March 2023.