The claim

“We will reform the taxation of air travel by switching from a per-passenger to a per-plane duty, and will ensure that a proportion of any increased revenues over time will be used to help fund increases in the personal allowance. “

Coalition agreement, May 2010

Cathy Newman checks it out

It was there in black and white: air passenger duty would be replaced by a greener tax. The idea was that by levying the tax per plane, rather than per passenger, airlines would be discouraged from running half-empty flights. It was something that the husky-hugging David Cameron and the greener-than-thou Nick Clegg could agree on. So into the coalition agreement it went. But I understand the government has now hit a snag, and the policy is in jeopardy.

The analysis

Every time you get a flight, you pay a tax, ranging from between £12 to £170 per passenger, depending on how far you travel. The coalition wanted to change that, making the charge payable on the plane, not on the individual passenger.

However, FactCheck has learnt there’s a problem. It appears the government may be unable to do this under EU law. One Whitehall source said the Treasury was “struggling” with it.

It had been expected to feature in the budget, in a fortnight’s time. But it’s now extremely unlikely it will make it in there.

That will please air travellers, as under the Lib Dem’s manifesto proposals, passengers on short-haul flights would have paid up to 75 per cent more as part of plans to generate £5.3bn from air passenger duty.

However it will dismay green groups. A per plane levy would have encouraged airlines to fill every seat, as if their flights were half-empty, they would still pay the tax, but wouldn’t be able to recoup all the money from passengers.

Budget airlines such as EasyJet were in favour of the change, because they tend to pack passengers into their planes.

Cathy Newman’s verdict

If, as expected, the Treasury fails to find a way round this stumbling block, it would be good news for passengers, bad news for the environment. However, it would also be very bad news for the Lib Dems. They were very proud of getting this green commitment into the coalition agreement. They’ve had to make so many sacrifices by getting into bed with the Tories. If they lose this too, some in Nick Clegg’s party will no doubt be tempted to buy him a one-way ticket somewhere far away – whatever they have to pay in duty.