UK Freight Association Rejects Proposed Airfreight Tax

13.05.2008 (10:06)

The UK's Freight Transport Association (FTA) is opposing a proposal by the government to introduce a tax on individual flights.

In a formal submission to the UK Treasury, the FTA said that such a tax would add "unnecessary costs" to UK airfreight services and worsen congestion on the UK's roads, reports UK Transport Intelligence.

The association's head of global supply chain policy, Christopher Snelling, said: "All that such a duty will achieve is to increase costs to shippers and air operators for direct UK air services, encouraging them to transfer goods by road to continental airports and then fly them from there.
"In the longer run it will mean that shippers will seek alternative, cheaper, options for airfreight by using continental bases for their operations. Such a policy will fail to raise much revenue for the government but will result in lost business within the UK."

The FTA also warned that the proposed the tax would weaken the competitiveness of, and the demand for, UK exports, especially high value, hi-tech goods.

The Association added, "Other EU countries do not impose such a tax. The new duty is intended to raise revenue rather than generate any environmental benefits, which, if obtained, would merely be a bonus."