UK think-tank suggests end to airport duty-free

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Flying is a "non-essential activity that is mainly the preserve of the better off", according to a leaked report from the UK's Institute for Public Policy Research

The report suggests the government should move to end duty-free sales at airports, or at least put a windfall tax on them.

The report says that aviation should be taxed more heavily to constrain growth in air travel, and also attacks the subsidisation of landing charges through the profits of airport shops. The news follows the Civil Aviation Authority's decision last week to increase the landing fees BAA can charge airlines.

UK Travel Retail Forum secretary-general Barry Goddard told TRW: "The authors of the report should get in touch with reality. Flying is essential to the UK as a major business and tourism hub, and if we price ourselves out of the market the UK economy as a whole will suffer."

However, Goddard said it was unlikely that the proposals would be adopted. "The government's most recent consultation paper on airport capacity indicates that they are fully aware of the importance of airport duty-free."

The UK report mirrors a paper published in Australia last December, in which the Australia Insititute argued for duty-free to be abolished (DFNI Jan 15). It said airport retail was a means of "propping up privatised airports with a tax break paid for by the rest of the community". Retailers dismissed the report as "poorly thought-out" and "out of touch".