Air Berlin: Germans Back Essex BoyA's Fight Against DarlingA's A'UnfairA' Airplane Tax

In November next year, APD will more than double from GBP40 to GBP85 for an economy class return flight from the UK to Australia.

Titus Johnson, says: A"The UK already imposes the highest rates of aviation taxation in the world, with additional significant increases in November 09 and 2010. Not a penny goes towards environmental benefits. APD is damaging to the tourism industry, the UK economy, and will restrict international visitors to the London 2012 Olympics.A"

Perry Wilson, Founder of InsureandGo, says: A"In April, the UK government announced that it will increase Air Passenger Duty (APD) by up to 112% next year. This will have a huge impact on the countryA's travel industry, and it will mean millions of fewer trips abroad, resulting in thousands of job losses.A"

InsureandGoA's research shows that between August 2008 and August 2009 over 1,000 weekly flights to and from UK airports were cancelled as a result of airlines pulling routes A- at a loss of over 95,000 seats per week A- because of the airlinesA' financial difficulties, and the fact that fewer people are flying as a result of the recession. The company is warning that the rise in APD will make matters worse.

APD is levied by the Government on all flights out of the UK and is purportedly a A'green taxA' on carbon emissions from airplanes, although no information is given on which projects the APD money goes towards.

InsureandGo has launched a A'greenA' travel insurance scheme, offering customers the ability to offset the environmental impact of travelling. Working with Carbon Clear, InsureandGo will provide customers with the opportunity to buy A"carbon offsetsA" when they purchase their travel insurance over the phone or online. The company is calling on the Government to exempt people from paying APD when travelling abroad if they can prove that they have already offset the environmental impact of their trip.

Mark Chadwick from Carbon Clear said: A"The fact that InsureandGo is offering this service is great news for green consumers who want to reduce their carbon footprint.A"

The cost of InsureandGoA's service is a fraction of the new Air Passenger Duty (APD) rates proposed by the Government, where a family of four could pay GBP340 when flying to Australia, for example.

The carbon offsets linked to these travel insurance policies will cost, on average, just GBP1.60 for a short haul flight and GBP10.55 for long haul. None of this money will go to InsureandGo A- all of it is spent on renewable energy projects audited and approved by carbon management company Carbon Clear.

Perry Wilson says, A"the rise in APD is simply going to make matters worse for the travel industry, and yet we donA't know what environmental benefits it actually brings. The environment is a huge concern for our customers, and many of them have asked us if there is an easy way for them to offset the environmental impact of their flights, which is why we have set up our new carbon offset scheme which gives customers the choice of offsetting their flights if they want to. Unlike with the GovernmentA's APD however, we can see exactly where the money is being spent.A"

InsureandGo estimates that if all its travel insurance customers used its new carbon offsetting service, they could offset up to 630,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. This is equivalent to roughly 4.5 billion air miles, or flying around the world 180,000 times.

A"We hope other travel insurers will follow our lead and develop similar offerings. The more people who offset their travel, the easier it is for us to stand up to the government on APD,A" explains Wilson.

ABOUT INSUREANDGO:

InsureandGo, based in Essex, was established in 2000 and has grown rapidly to become the UKA's largest direct travel insurance specialist. Over two million holidaymakers a year choose to cover their travels with its low cost, high value policies.

All InsureandGo policies cover children under 18 for free and include over 40 adventure sports, while its annual policies include winter sports automatically.

ABOUT AIR BERLIN:

Air Berlin is GermanyA's second largest airline, operating extensive semi-low-cost services to holiday destinations in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands and North Africa, as well as to major cities in Europe from 21 German airports. Its main base is Berlin-Tegel International Airport. The airline carried 28.6 million passengers in 2008.

CONTACT: InsureandGoA's
WWW: http://www.insureandgo.com

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