Chancellor Rachel Reeves laid out the changes to APD in Labour’s first Budget since taking power in the summer, one Reeves hailed a once-in-a-parliament reset of the nation’s finances.
From 1 April 2026, APD levied on domestic flights will increase by £1 per passenger from £7 to £8 – a £2 increase, in effect, assuming it is a return journey.
The rate of APD charged on short-haul economy seats will also increase from the same date by £2 from a current £13 to £15.
EasyJet’s chief financial officer and chief executive-in-waiting Kenton Jarvis last week told analysts the airline will reduce its UK domestic offering owing to the increase in APD, branding it "not very pro-growth".
According to national media reports, services between London, Scotland and Northern Ireland were most likely to be affected.
“It’s exactly what they [the government] said they didn’t want to do, which is to tax the working person,” Jarvis, who will succeed Johan Lundgren as easyJet chief executive in January, told The Telegraph.
“We’re an island and we’re taxing what gets the economy moving: it’s loggerheads with being pro-growth. I don’t think it’s a smart move.”
EasyJet’s decision follows rival Ryanair’s decision to cut capacity to and from UK airports by up to five million passengers in 2025 in response to the increase in APD.
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary called Reeves’s decision “idiotic”, saying it would regional growth in the UK.
"This short-sighted tax grab will make air travel much more expensive for ordinary UK families going on holidays abroad and will make the UK a less competitive destination compared with Ireland, Sweden, Hungary and Italy where these governments are abolishing travel taxes to stimulate traffic, tourism and job growth in their economies,” he said last month.
