Frequent Flyer Airmiles Schemes

Lord Hamilton of Epsom Excerpts

Monday 21st October 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Duncan of Springbank]

To be very clear, the UK has an air passenger duty which raises £3.6 billion a year. It is the highest such tax in Europe—many countries in Europe do not have such a tax—and that money goes a long way to address climate change issues, which are of importance to the Government.

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, surely a customer loyalty scheme is what it says on the tin: it is trying to persuade people to fly with one airline rather than another. There is no evidence that if you discriminate against these schemes, people will fly less; they will just choose between one airline and another.

[Lord Duncan of Springbank]

It is not the policy of the Government to intervene in these commercial decisions. It is also important to recognise that this is a regressive step in many respects.