Scrap Air Passenger Duty (APD) to help promote City of Derry Airport after COVID-19 crisis says tourism lobbyist Dr. Joanne Stuart

Dr. Joanne Stuart is the Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Tourism Alliance.

Addressing the Stormont Economy Committee on Wednesday she said the travel tax should be abolished to promote the Eglinton airport and the local tourism sector.

She said the demise of Flybe last month had dealt a major blow to the industry.

The airline was operating fourteen routes out of Belfast before it was placed in administration.

“With the collapse of Flybe we saw our capacity reduced between 25 and 30 per cent for flights into Great Britain,” said Dr. Stuart.

“Obviously with COVID-19 aviation has been significantly impacted and part of it is how they are going to build back up their capacity but from a regional perspective we need to do everything to ensure that Belfast and Derry are seen as locations where airlines want to have routes,” she added.

A straightforward way of buoying tourism would be getting rid of APD altogether, said Dr. Stuart.

“That’s why we are calling again for the abolishment of APD on short haul flights.

“We are also asking for support for an air route development fund to really encourage airlines to think about Belfast and Derry as routes,” she appealed.