On Tuesday, Alistair Darling announced in the pre-Budget report a fundamental reform of air passenger duty (APD) with effect from November 2009.

He left the APD rates unchanged for the next fiscal year 2008-09, but moved to close the loophole under which passengers flying on the new breed of all-business class airlines such as Eos, Maxjet and Silverjet, have been paying the economy, rather than the business, class rate of APD.