Federation of Tour Operators fail in air passenger duty court challenge

Judgement has been given in the case brought by the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO), in which they sought judicial review of Gordon Brown's decision to increase air passenger duty. I blogged about it here.

As well as opposing the increase, the FTO also argued that air passenger duty was itself an unlawful tax.

Unfortunately for the FTO, the judge disagreed with them on both grounds.

The judge held that:

• the imposition of air passenger duty, and its increase, were not prohibited by the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation;
• the measure also did not breach article 49 of the EC Treaty (which prohibits restrictions on freedom to provide services within the EC).

The judge also held that, even if the measure had breached art 49 of the EC Treaty, it would still have been OK because it satisfied the 'proportionality' requirement.

Bad news for the FTO. I wonder what, if any, action they will take next.

Click here to read the judgment. I am reading it now, and will provide some analysis later.