{"id":88200,"date":"2012-09-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelstartblg.wpenginepowered.com\/a-fair-tax-on-flying\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T13:50:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T13:50:54","slug":"a-fair-tax-on-flying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/a-fair-tax-on-flying\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fair Tax on Flying"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-26283\" title=\"Logo\" src=\"https:\/\/travelstartmu.wpenginepowered.com\/zablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/10\/Logo.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"153\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Thinking of travelling to the UK any time soon? Did you know that included in the cost of your ticket is a charge of over R1,000 for UK Airport Departure Tax (APD)? That is <strong>R1,000<\/strong> per person, so if you are going with your partner and 2 kids you are paying the UK government over <strong>R4,000<\/strong> for the\u00a0privilege\u00a0of leaving the country via an airport. You are advised to arrive at the airport 3 hours before a flight, so the next time you are in Heathrow waiting for a security search you can take solace in the fact that you are paying <strong>R5.50 per minute<\/strong> for that pleasure.<\/p>\n<p>Feel aggrieved? Put off from travelling to the UK? Add your voice to the A Fair Tax on Flying campaign which is lobbying the UK government to drop or reduce the APD charge. The campaign is supported by a wide range of organisations based in the UK, including airlines, airport companies &amp; trade associations. 27,500 people already like the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/afairtaxonflying\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook page<\/a> and 185,000 have emailed British Members of Parliment (MPs) calling for a review of the tax. The success of the campaign so far is highly encouraging &#8211; 96 MPs have backed a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.parliament.uk\/edm\/2012-13\/174\" target=\"_blank\">proposal<\/a>\u00a0for the UK Treasury to\u00a0commission\u00a0a study into the\u00a0impact\u00a0of the tax.<\/p>\n<p>In South Africa we pay the government <strong>R299<\/strong> in tax each time we fly internationally, much less than in the UK but still a significant burden on travellers. Maybe it is time for a similar campaign here?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-26290\" title=\"400percentmore\" src=\"https:\/\/travelstartmu.wpenginepowered.com\/zablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/10\/400percentmore.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"381\" \/>\u00a0The graphic above demonstrates\u00a0how much extra in taxes a family flying to the US pays. The tax on flights to South Africa is even higher!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thinking of travelling to the UK any time soon? Did you know that included in the cost of your ticket is a charge of over R1,000 for UK Airport Departure Tax (APD)? That is R1,000 per person, so if you are going with your partner and 2 kids you are paying the UK government over R4,000 for the\u00a0privilege\u00a0of leaving the country via an airport. You &#8230; <a title=\"A Fair Tax on Flying\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/a-fair-tax-on-flying\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about A Fair Tax on Flying\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":88201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_destination_ratings":[],"_destination_review_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[456,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-insight-travel","category-travel","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Fair Tax on Flying - Travelstart Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/a-fair-tax-on-flying\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Fair Tax on Flying - Travelstart Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thinking of travelling to the UK any time soon? Did you know that included in the cost of your ticket is a charge of over R1,000 for UK Airport Departure Tax (APD)? That is R1,000 per person, so if you are going with your partner and 2 kids you are paying the UK government over R4,000 for the\u00a0privilege\u00a0of leaving the country via an airport. You ... 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