A three-pronged plan has been drawn up by the Business Travel Association and sent to chancellor Rishi Sunak, transport secretary Grant Shapps and business secretary Alok Sharma.
Calls include a business rates holiday, temporary relief from Air Passenger Duty (APD) and ring-fencing APD for investment in green flying technologies, such as sustainable aviation biofuels.
Chief executive Clive Wratten said: “Our industry plays a crucial role in helping British business travel and trade and, until demand returns, we urgently need government support to help us survive.
“Targeted and limited government backing for the business travel sector will not only save many jobs in our industry, but underpin one of the vital support pillars for British business as a whole.”
The association also notes in its letter that while some sectors, such as hospitality, have benefitted from dedicated government support, business travel – and the wider travel sector – has not.
TTG’s #SaveTravel campaign, launched last week, is seeking sector-specific support for the travel sector in its entirety, including an APD holiday until the end of August 2021.
The BTA’s parachute package proposals include:
- Repayable business support – financial support to cover 60% of salaries of employees in business travel companies (TMCs) until at least the end of 2020. This will then be repaid by those companies through 10% of profits each quarter;
- Business rates holiday – a 12-month business rates holiday to provide firms with vitally needed liquidity;
- Temporary APD reduction – a temporary, 12-month suspension of APD to provide an immediate stimulus for travel, with premium economy (popular with many cost-conscious business travellers) no longer taxed in the same band as first and business class. When the tax is restored in a year’s time, the BTA is also calling for the government to ring fence 50% of it for investment in environmental measures, such as the development of aviation biofuels
