Summit slams air travel duty

AN aviation summit has given unanimous backing to warnings that air passenger duty is damaging Scotland’s economy.

Senior figures from British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and easyJet joined bosses of all Scotland’s airports and representatives from the Edinburgh and Scottish chambers of commerce at the first meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group on aviation. The meeting endorsed the findings of a study which showed steep rises in duty since 2007 were losing Edinburgh Airport up to a million passengers a year.