There’s a lot of confusion over taxes and fees when flying from London, because there are so many of them. European and British airlines like British Airways add fuel surcharges or ‘carrier-imposed surcharges’ onto tickets. These are extra fees for no particular reason, that are quoted as part of the total price when buying a ticket for cash. They are extra fees collected on top of your miles when you redeem points, making them even worse.
But the United Kingdom also has an Air Passenger Duty (APD), also sometimes referred to as a premium cabin departure tax. That’s an extra government charge collected on premium cabin travel originating in the country.
- If you originate in the U.K. (but not Scotland, or long haul from Northern Ireland) you pay the tax.
- It doesn’t apply if you’re merely connecting in the U.K. That way it doesn’t disadvantage British Airways vis-a-vis Air France, Lufthansa, and others for connecting traffic.
- There’s actually a tax on coach travel, it’s just lower.
And the U.K. is raising this tax. In fact it was already set to go up April 1st. It’s just going to go up even more, as announced Wednesday by Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt.
The UK’s airline passenger duty will increase for non-economy passengers, which Hunt said was to account for high inflation in recent years. The increase will amount to an extra £20 ($25.45) for long-haul flights and £22 for ultra-long haul flights. The duty will be frozen for economy passengers on domestic and short-haul flights while long-haul economy fliers will pay £2 more.
Currently there are two destination bands and three types of travel for determining the amount of Air Passenger duty. These are flights up to 2,000 miles and flights over 2,000 miles; and coach/premium cabin/private travel. There are specific definitions of what is economy versus premium air travel, and what constitutes private jet travel for the highest rate band.
Basically, the short haul band is all of Europe plus places lie the Russian (west of the Urals); Ukraine; Libya; and islands like the Canaries and Channel Islands. That’s staying the same, but April 1 there will be additional bands.
- Domestic: destinations in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland only
- A: 0 to 2,000 miles from London to the destination’s capital city
- B: 2,001 to 5,500 miles from London to the destination’s capital city
- C: Over 5,501 miles from London to the destination’s capital city
Coach is considered “the lowest class of travel available on the plane for seat pitches less than” 40 inches. Premium is “any other class of travel or where the seat pitch is more than” 40 inches (and there are discussions of exemptions for free upgrades and other nuances). Private jets are planes that weigh at least 20 tons but are equipped to carry a maximum of 18 passengers. (Large private jets don’t pay the highest fee!)
It looks like starting April 1 passengers will be assessed as follows:
| Coach | Premium | Private | ||||
| Domestic | 8.89 | 17.78 | 99.06 | |||
| Band A | 16.51 | 33.02 | 99.06 | |||
| Band B | 114.3 | 271.78 | 737.87 | |||
| Band C | 119.38 | 284.48 | 770.89 |
This is included in the price quoted when you buy a revenue ticket. If you upgrade (with miles, cash, etc.) the difference between what was paid in your ticket and the new tax due will generally be collected. And you pay this when redeeming miles for a free ticket, too. This tax is part of what makes U.K. departing premium cabin tickets so expensive with miles – a combination of fuel surcharges (imposed by airlines) and this air passenger duty (government tax).
Incorrect. The tax also applies to Scotland
When did private flights first start getting hit with APD?
APD is a reason to avoid stopovers in the UK and chose stopovers elsewhere.
If premium travel is described as anything with more than 40″ of seat pitch, doesn’t that exclude Club Europe flights on most of their aircraft?
Anyway, just more of an incentive to avoid stopovers or travel to the UK, not that I need one.
I also avoid BA premium cabins whenever possible because of the absurd seat selection fees.
UK has many illegal aliens to feed , house and provide healthcare . Same as US .
@GUWonder – this is not recently, though some small planes can be exempt based on weight
@Jimbo – technically it’s a different tax for Scotland
A couple things to remember about UK taxes & BA fees.
1. It doesn’t apply when flying into the UK. So if you’re doing a European trip, do the UK first and do an open-jaw ticket. Return from somewhere else. You can transit London, but again, do it from outside the UK.
2. The tax is much lower when starting somewhere else and transiting London. The easiest tax-avoidance starting point is Dublin. Hop a cheap flight to DUB, turn around, and catch the same flights you were going to catch at much lower prices. In fact, if you were looking a J non-stop from LHR-Destination, vs DUB-LHR-Destination, you will see the price drop tremendously.
3. Seat selection fees on BA don’t exist for those with OneWorld status. You might need to call BA to register your status the first time you book, however. AA Gold can select 7 days out, but not exit rows until 24 hours out, AA Plat can slect anything but exit rows at booking, exit rows 24 hours out, and AA PlatPro and above can select anything at booking.
Now there will be even more of a reason to never buy or upgrade to premium for a UK departure back to US. Depart before Noon London time and you really do not need a lie flat seat anyway as only a brief nap is needed.
BTW, the UK is desperate to raise taxes this way because they cannot raise personal income tax rates any higher. Google the income tax rates on its mostly poor citizens (compared to US) and you will be surprised at the incredibly low income that puts one in the UK’s highest tax bracket. Truly shocking!
The Scotland exemption is only for itineraries beginning in the Highlands/Islands. Functionally for most mainline airlines that means the only airport it applies to is Inverness.
And BA is trying to increase their premium products, Business and First, to compete with other carriers? I can’t see that adding a tax, in other words, hiking rates, is going to encourage growth of the product.
Flew BA F London to NY recently. The lounge experience was quite lacking. Food was meh. The onboard experience was decent. Liked the seat which was quite comfortable. Had a good crew. Food was alright.
The UK is indeed desperate for tax revenue. And as part of the British Conservatives wanting to hike up APD to fly in ways, they have also decided to abandon 200+ year-old taxation tradition in the country.
What is next for taxation by the UK after seeking to tax non-dom’s foreign income? Perhaps it will be US style global income taxation of UK citizens? Either way, we keep seeing the “rewards” of Brexit delivered by the so-called Conservatives and their supporters.
I’m not sure a ‘tradition’ of letting people not pay tax if their father was not born in the UK is a tradition worth keeping.
I agree, Raffles. And IIRC, it was set up to encourage colonial behavior.
It was the absurdity of Sunak’s wife — who happens to be from a very wealthy Indian family — being able to take advantage of non-domiciled status for tax avoidance purposes that may have been the final tipping point for this feature of the taxation regime in the UK.
It should have bit the dust decades ago, but it just didn’t. But given it is going to happen now, it has me thinking it may be just a matter of time until the UK decides to follow in the footsteps of the US in trying to chase money from the citizens domiciled (and ordinarily resident) abroad.
They blame inflation. Inflation for what, the cost of collecting a tax? It’s just a way to raise money for unrelated social programs. People often talk about how health care is free in the UK or whatever they like to position as “better” than the USA or XYZ yet there is always a cost to someone.
Wow. Another reason to not visit there. As a OW member it’s been difficult to stay away from LHR when going to Europe, but I’ve managed. Madrid is nice, the staff incredibly rude & incompetent, but still a better experience than Heathrow.
The UK is a mess politically and economically right now. No real useful plans for the economy or country. And some old timers still view the country as a power. Get rid of the whole royalty crap, come up with a plan for the economy and start fixing the country. They make the US look efficient although the US is moving down the same path if things don’t change (political interests over the country, especially its infrastructure).
Flew to London over the Christmas holiday on my airline industry travel benefits. Return flight from LHR was indeed in J and I was billed over $700 USD in taxes and fees, in addition to the airline’s standard service charges.
Not going to happen again anytime soon. London is overrated and over priced.
After reading the comments have I misread the article? Flying from AUS to ARN thru LHR and return thru LHR in J, will the APD tax be assessed on the entire west bound flight, just the LHR-AUS leg, none of the flight due to connection only in LHR (even with 22 hour layover ticketed on BA)? Additional 700 USD gets my attention.
@One Trippe – No APD when one way journey is not originating in the U.K…. since you’re starting in another country and just connecting in the U.K. it is not assessed.