Originally Posted by
jbalmuth
Common sense dictates that either a practical workaround will be found (and spread via bulletin boards like this one). or that such transfer passenger traffic will soon fall sharply off.
Does anyone know whether one of the goals of the APD was to reduce the attractiveness of the UK as a transit point between airlines?
I would suggest (without any basis for my suggestion) that the number of people in this circumstance (transiting LHR for less than 24 hours in transit and on different tickets) is very small and the number who would be savvy enough to realise that their ticket includes this APD even smaller). If there was an easy way of allowing non-linked tickets to get an exemption then a way to abuse the practical workaround would probably be found and spread via bulletin boards like this one -something along the lines of buying a refundable ticket in order to access an airport lounge and then cancelling the ticket once you have use/abused the facility