Julie Southern, Virgin Atlantic’s chief commercial officer, has slammed the government for disregarding the “vast majority” of responses to the recent APD consultation.
The Treasury published its response to the consultation earlier this month, after it confirmed plans to increase APD by some 8% in April 2012.
The 27-page document acknowledged that there had been calls for changes to APD, largely around the current banding and the inclusion of premium economy in the higher rate.
These were dismissed by the Treasury, however, as being too costly or complicated. The government also stated that a “substantial minority” were in favour of retaining existing rules.
It has now emerged that just 16% of respondents to the consultation called for the current rules on Premium Economy to stay the same, while on the matter of whether to retain the existing four-band structure, just 6% were in favour.
Virgin’s comments come after questions from Henry Smith, MP for Crawley, forced the Treasury to reveal the figures.
Chloe Smith, economic secretary to the Treasury, replied to Mr Smith: “It was clear from consultation responses on class of travel that premium economy products vary significantly between airlines.
“Any attempt to define premium economy for taxation purposes would increase the complexity of the tax, increasing the burdens for both industry and HMRC.”
Southern has since queried why the Treasury conducted “a costly consultation if you are going to ignore the vast majority of people and go with just 6% of responders on the key issue?”
She said: “It is now clear that there were clear majorities in favour of a simpler two band system and ending the ridiculous rules which mean Premium Economy passengers pay the same rates as those travelling in Upper or First class.
"The Government had claimed that 'a substantial minority' argued against a change in the rules for Premium Economy. We now know just 16% argued for the status quo."