Scotland’s largest airports have made a joint submission to the Smith Commission, calling for Air Passenger Duty (APD) to be devolved to the Scottish parliament.
The Smith Commission is looking into gaining extra powers for the Scottish Parliament.
Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports have made the case to Holyrood for the “reduction” and “eventual abolition” of APD.
It is expected that if the Scottish government gained control of setting APD it would eventually lead to the scrapping of the tax entirely in Scotland.
The three airports claim the “hugely damaging” duty will by 2016 have cost the Scottish economy up to £210 million in lost tourism spend a year.
“We‘ve argued long and hard for its reduction or abolition and have been ignored but now the evidence for its devolution to Scotland speaks for itself,” said Edinburgh airport CEO Gordon Dewar.
“Ryanair has already committed to delivering over one million new passengers in the event of APD being abolished, so it’s obvious that airlines support our argument.
“Following a year of unprecedented success and attention for Scotland it would be foolish not to harness this opportunity to deliver a tremendous boost to our country’s tourism industry,” Dewar added.
In April 2013 the Republic of Ireland scrapped its equivalent of APD entirely, leaving the UK as one of just five countries in Europe to levy a passenger departure tax.
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 it has risen significantly since 2007 and the minimum now is £13 and the highest £188.