The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has called on the government to put a freeze Air Passenger Duty (APD).
Ahead of this month’s Budget the CBI has written to chancellor George Osborne outlining the measures he should prioritise to help boost UK business investment and trade.
One of the issues it wants to see tackled is rising APD costs, which are the highest in the EU. The CBI said the entire system needs to reviewed, especially for long-haul flights, where it is most “distortive”.
The CBI said British businesses need a “leg up” to help sell more products around the world, and this would come if APD was frozen.
APD is a duty which is charged on the carriage of passengers flying from a UK airport. The amount of duty charged is calculated using a variety of factors. In its original form the minimum APD charge on a ticket was £5 and the maximum was £40.
Controversially APD has risen significantly since 2007 and the minimum now is £13 and the highest £188.
Cridland said: "To successfully rebalance our economy we need to give businesses a leg up to invest in new equipment and to sell more of their goods and services around the world."
Last week, IAG chief executive, Willie Walsh said APD is preventing Northern Ireland from gaining significant investment and is damaging its economy.
Walsh who is a longstanding critic of the tax also said the tax is harming airport growth.
“I speak to airline CEOs around the world and when I ask them about investing in Northern Ireland or starting new routes to Northern Ireland they’re not interested because of the tax issue,” he said.