Securing cheap holiday deals can be a nightmare with the average cost of a summer abroad seemingly costing more year on year.
Finding a cheap hotel deal is more likely but this is then overlooked by skyrocket flight prices. It was recently revealed that the best way to secure flight deals was to book at least a month in advance but this then means losing out on last minute hotel deals.
Unfortunately, flight prices don’t look like they’ll be falling anytime soon, in fact, they’re on the rise and the reason is Air passenger duty (APD).
Just like other consumer goods, air miles are heavily taxed, with a further tax increase recently announced but their is a way to avoid the increased tax.
Air Passenger Duty, is the duty charge that is added to every flight departing from the UK and is levied against each passenger on the plane according to Skyscanner.
The charge is not added to passengers flying back into the UK so holidaymakers are only required to pay the charge once.
It was introduced in a bid to encourage UK passengers to consider the environmental impact of their flight, with passengers paying to reduce this impact.
The added duty started at a cost of £5 for a short-haul flight and £10 for a longer flight back in 1994, however, these costs have seen drastically since then.
From the first of April, this tax is set to rise again with an added extra charge of £73 for economy class passengers on a long-haul flight, a £3 rise from the previous tax price.
Short flights will stay at the current £13 per flight from the UK with the increase applied to long-haul flights travelling further than 2,000 miles – the equivalent of flying from London to Cyprus.
Passengers flying in Business class or higher could see an added price of £142 to their flight after April.
The price of APD also depends on the size of planes with only heavier passengers cabins affected.
The costs will be introduced on aircraft that weight more 5.7 tonnes or carry more than 20 passengers.
There are a however a few loopholes. There is a way to avoid the weighty duty charges which would, therefore, reduce the cost of the flight.
Popular short-haul flights to Europe such as Paris, Italy and Germany will still be capped at £13 on a flight leaving the UK.
Airports in Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands are also exempt. To avoid the cost on longer flights such as American destinations, Skyscanner suggests flying from one the exempt airports on a short-haul flight to Europe and change for a connecting flight on towards America, avoiding the hefty APD.
