Frequent Flyer Airmiles Schemes

Debate between Lord Duncan of Springbank and Lord Bishop of Salisbury

Monday 21st October 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Duncan of Springbank]

To be very clear, our air passenger duty is a tax commonly passed on to passengers: the more you fly, the more you pay. Additionally, this should be addressed at international level, as the noble Lord said. I am not averse to the notion of people being more fully aware of what they are participating in, and I will examine that more carefully.

[The Lord Bishop of Salisbury]

Can the Minister explain why the gap between aviation fuel being untaxed and road fuel being taxed as it is, is so great? If the answer is the difficulty of getting international agreement, why are UK internal flights not taxed to get some parity between different methods of transport?

[Lord Duncan of Springbank]

The challenge we face in this country is that we are a major hub for international flights, as well as a country with a significant geographical challenge. We do all we can to ensure that people can take the types of journey they are able to take; it is up to commercial companies to determine how best to take that forward.