Airlines increase fares to Caribbean just WEEKS after Chancellor announces tax cut on flights to the holiday islands

From Daily Mail UK

Airlines have increased fares to the Caribbean just weeks after Chancellor George Osborne announced Air Passenger Duty on flights to the islands would be reduced.

British Airways confirmed that it has added £10 to ticket prices to six destinations – Barbados, Antigua, St Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago and Kingston in Jamaica.

It said the move was ‘in response to market conditions’, but one Caribbean tourist board said it was shocked at the decision.

A Caribbean specialist operator described the move as ‘disappointing’ so soon after the reduction in air passenger duty.

The operator, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘We’ve had no notification of an increase in this manner for any other region of the world.’

Virgin Atlantic is believed to have followed the move with a £10 increase on some Caribbean routes, with immediate effect, although it refused to confirm the rise, saying only that decisions regarding pricing were commercially sensitive.

BA said fares to its other Caribbean destinations, Punta Cana, St Kitts and Nevis and the Port of Spain remained unchanged.

A spokesman for the airline said that even with the increase, low-season fares to the Caribbean were ‘well below’ the levels of two years ago.

However, the Caribbean tourist industry expressed dismay at the increase so soon after the Chancellor announced that APD on flights to the islands would be reduced to the same level as to the US.

One Caribbean tourist board member said: ‘I can’t believe BA is doing this so soon.’

In last month’s Budget, the Chancellor announced that all long-haul passengers would pay the same tax as those flying to the US from April 1, which represents a saving of £64 for a family of four flying to the Caribbean.

He admitted the current system, calculated according to the distance between London and the destination country’s capital city, was ‘crazy and unjust’.

Elizabeth Fox, Jamaica Tourist Board regional director for UK and Northern Europe, told industry website TravelMole: ‘Following the recent APD victory for the Caribbean, it seems a real shame that BA and Virgin are looking to increase fares to destinations in the West Indies like Jamaica.

‘Fares have been known to go up at this time of year, but it seems that the Caribbean is being singled out when other destinations are not being targeted for an increase.

‘Just when travel agents had some good news to share with value-driven British travellers wishing to head to our beautiful region, the cost-saving message of not being charged extra for travel to our islands is being snatched away again.’

For more on this story go to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2610186/Airlines-increase-fares-Caribbean-just-WEEKS-Chancellor-announces-tax-cut-flights-holiday-islands.html#ixzz2zk8RLzTM