Demonstrators marched outside Liverpool’s John Lennon airport on Monday in a campaign against proposed air passenger fee rises.

Firms throughout the industry, including British Airways, strongly oppose government plans to raise the world’s highest Air Passenger Duty (APD) rates. But yesterday saw individuals join the fight as demonstrators marched outside the airport in Liverpool with signs saying “hands off my holiday.”

A recent campaign group-backed poll shows that almost half of Britons think that the APD should be cut back and a whopping 75 per cent are against the proposed rise, which is set to go into force in 2012. In the North West, more than half (52 per cent) want the fees to be cut.

The campaign organisation has backing from several groups, including the UK’s Board of Airline Representatives (BAR-UK), the British Air Transport Association (BATA) and the Airport Operators Association (AOA).

Darrent Caplan said on behalf of campaigners that enough was enough, pointing out that APD fees for long-haul flights from the UK have increased 325 per cent over the last half-decade, whilst short-haul flights have seen an increase of 140 per cent. Likewise, the BATA’s chief executive Simon Buck said that passengers were already paying £3 billion annually in APD taxes, which is more than the state receives from banking firms.