Letter to Chancellor on announcement of end of airside tax free sales

Chair of the Future of Aviation Group Henry Smith MP has today written to the Chancellor urging him to reverse plans to scrap tax free sales at airports from January 1st.

The full text of the letter is below

Dear Rishi,

I am writing to you in my capacity as the Chair of the Future of Aviation Group to request an urgent meeting to discuss the recent announcement that tax free sales to air passengers bound for international destinations will end from 1st January 2021.

This announcement will cause further and substantial damage to our airports and international tourism and comes as they are tackling the biggest challenge ever faced by the industry from COVID-19.

The UK’s world class aviation sector is vital to our aspirations for a truly global Britain and this announcement will significantly increase the crisis that they are currently battling. As you will know, tax free shopping at airports is a major source of revenue for UK airports and a welcome boost for families as they travel on holidays. Over the course of the last few months, with passenger numbers down by around 80 per cent, we have seen projections that job losses in the sector will stretch to the hundreds of thousands. I fear that these measures will cause further and wholly unnecessary job losses.

This decision also risks placing our airports at a further disadvantage to our European neighbours, with sales and routes shifting to other European markets, again coming at a time when other European airports are recovering at a faster rate than those in the UK.

Our aviation, travel and tourism sectors have been amongst the hardest hit by the pandemic and face a very difficult and long road to recovery. These announcements undermine and threaten that recovery and I would urge you to reverse this decision in order to protect our airports, the communities that depend on them and crucially the thousands of jobs at risk.

Given the urgency of this issue, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you further alongside representatives from industries affected including airports and major retailers.

Yours sincerely

Henry Smith
Member of Parliament for Crawley and Chair, Future of Aviation Group