A senior boss at Ryanair has called on Liz Truss' new Government to scrap what he describes as a "ridiculous" duty on air fares to boost regional airports.
Talking to Business Live on the announcement of a winter schedule from Ryanair's newly established Newcastle International Airport base, commercial director Jason McGuinness said getting rid of air passenger duty (APD) could mean the difference between Newcastle - which currently supports two Ryanair aircraft - hosting four or five planes and Teesside International getting five to 10 routes.
He said: "It really, really does put UK regional airports at a significant disadvantage to their competitors. There are two reasons for that: one, a significant number of European airports do not have APD, which immediately puts the Newcastle management team on the back foot because they're starting £13 behind, and the other thing is the aviation market across Europe: it's roughly 20% where it was in summer 2019.
