BUSINESS leaders claim Government plans for further increases to taxes on flights could cost the UK £10.6 billion and 250,000 jobs by 2030.

In a new report, the British Chambers of Commerce have backed the stance led by Newcastle Airport, which wants an end to, or at least a fairer system of, Air Passenger Duty.

The charges, which The Journal’s A Tax Too Far campaign has fought as unfair and harmful to North East economic interests, have risen by up to 325% since 2007 and are now up to 8.5 times the European average – adding up to £170 per ticket to the cost of travelling.

Commenting in the report, Flying in the face of jobs and growth: How aviation policy needs to change to support UK business, the group’s director general John Longworth said that despite claiming it is not anti-aviation, the Government was doing its best to prove otherwise.

He said: “In the last year we have seen the Government abandon an air transport white paper widely applauded for its long-term clarity, with ministers citing their cancelling of its key projects as an early success.

“But 2010 also saw an announcement that aviation policy was to be fundamentally redrawn and the Government now has a simple choice: it can set a bold, long-term aviation policy that serves our businesses and boosts economic recovery or it can mark time and meander its way to a more anodyne result.

“UK businesses do not believe we have the luxury of such time and on aviation policy the Government must act now.”