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Ryanair has called on Gordon Brown to scrap £10 APD tax and speed up the sale of Gatwick and Stansted airports to prevent a further collapse in UK tourism and related jobs next winter.

Published: 24 Jun 2009

Ryanair has called on Gordon Brown to scrap £10 APD tax and speed up the sale of Gatwick and Stansted airports to prevent a further collapse in UK tourism and related jobs next winter.

“If the UK traffic collapse continues for the full year the UK economy will lose over 10 million passengers, 10,000 airport jobs and over £2.5billion in tourism spend in 2009 alone, with the Government losing at least £350 million in VAT receipts,” stated the airline.

Ryanair urged the British Government to follow the lead of the Belgian, Dutch, Greek and Spanish Governments who have recently scrapped similar tourist taxes and/or airport charges in order to reverse falling passenger numbers and prevent further tourism and job losses.

The airline confirmed that it will freeze growth at its nine UK bases with immediate effect.

Ryanair highlighted that Brown’s £10 tourist tax, combined with the BAA Monopoly’s high airport charges have caused the loss of over 4.5 million passengers at the BAA UK airports in the first five months of the year.

“The Government’s £10 tourist tax is making the UK an uncompetitive destination and they must scrap this tax now to prevent a further collapse of UK passenger, tourism and job numbers. While the UK keeps taxing tourists Ryanair will switch its growth to other EU countries where low cost airports are growing and where Governments are welcoming tourists not taxing them,” Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said.

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