As UK airlines rally together to combat any increases in APD, a  poll by leading travel search site Skyscanner reveals that 56% of UK travellers are still unaware of Air Passenger Duty (APD).

Of those who know what APD is, only 7% say that it plays ‘an important role’ in their travel decisions, suggesting that most Britons’ travel plans will remain unaffected by changes to the new distance-based tax banding due to be announced in a Government statement on 29 November.

The poll of almost 1000 UK travellers found that 21% consider the new tax but it claim that is ‘not a key factor’ when making travel destination decisions.  A further 18% state that while it might impact their budget it would not put them off where they would want to go– however whether this will still be true if the Government decides to backdate the passenger duty to include flights already booked for beyond April 2012, remains to be seen.

While it appears UK travellers remain largely unfazed by the potential tax rise, there are fears that foreign tourists may be put off visiting Britain due to the tax, a major risk to take in in a year that sees iconic events including the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and London 2012 take place.

Skyscanner CEO Gareth Williams said: “According to our latest research, APD charges introduced last year have little impact on flight searches from the UK and some destinations that incurred the highest charges, such as the Caribbean and Singapore, have seen a significant increase year on year. Although what we’ve seen so far and our latest poll indicate that APD  is unlikely to have a significant impact on the day-to-day travel behaviour of Brits in the immediate future, time will tell what the longer term impact will be and whether the UK will feel the effect of a drop in inbound tourism.”