We all know that the British government is tax happy when it comes to the airline industry, but thanks to some loopholes, airlines are figuring out ways to help reduce the tax burden.
The Air Passenger Duty rule specifically states that there are two levels of taxation. People traveling in the lowest class of service on an aircraft pay GBP5 for European flights and GBP20 for all other flights. People traveling in any other class of service have to pay double that amount.
This means that customers on all-business class flights on airlines like MAXjet and Eos get to pay the lower level because they are in the lowest class of service. According to this article, bmi’s regional airline has now realized that by removing the dividers between the business class and economy class cabins, they are technically considered the same class under Section 2.5 of the rule since the seats are the same.
BA says they have no plans to follow, but I can tell you as a customer I’d be happy to pay GBP5 less for a short haul flight if all it meant was having no curtain in the aisle.