George Orwell was right - we really have become Airstrip 51!

K John, London, UK

There is no tax on childrens shoes. Think of the money the Treasury could reap if they did that.

Hey, I've just stumbled on a cool plan to help out Gordon and Alistair. Lets tax EVERYTHING !

TrevorH, OXON,

This is rubbish. The treasury has lost nothing. This is not news.

Nick, Bournemouth , UK

Close Heathrow now !!!

Michael Ball, norwich, UK

Heathrow should manage to reduce passengers without any help the way it is going.....I'm sure most the people going through Heathrow haven't done so through choice so why tax them and increase their misery?

Mags, Nr Oxford, UK

This is a scandalous tax anyway, so why should foriegn passengers transfering have to pay.
It is just another way of Labours desire to seperate us from our cash!

Pete, St Albans, England

If Heathrow introduced a transit tax then this might encourage other airports to do the same. So a passenger flying from Heathrow to Australia via Singapore might then have to pay a transit tax in Singapore and hey presto the whole cost of flying goes up.

Best to keep it as it is.

Len, Brussels, Belgium

Well I wouldnt worry because the way that Heathrow runs it wont be long before overseas travellerss book transfers through ,Madrid,Barcelona,Amsterdam,Frankfurt,Paris,Berlin and avoid Heathrow all together.. you cant tax them just for stepping briefly on UK soil,surely??

Mike, London,

Lets discourage them from using LHR, which will release capacity and enable Heathrow to be a gateway to the UK, not a hub that benefits only BA and BAA. No 3rd runway would be required in the short term and BA could concentrate on offering the frequencies and destination that the UK economy needs.

Max, London, UK

More and more pollution to achieve greater profits for BA and little, if any, benefit to the UK economy. If these transit passengers transit somewhere else, so what?

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

Why should transit passengers pay tax to the treasury? Frankly, if there is a direct flight available at the same cost, I would take it, as it's preferable to waiting in departure lounges. Otherwise, things would get silly, like how we had to pay Japanese departure tax for staying only 1 night.

Graeme Phillips, London, UK

And the reason we can't tax the transit passengers is?

Graeme, Newcastle,

that's like saying if the tickets were twice the price ba would make more money and if they were half the price.....

Phil Barnes, preston, england

It costs the taxman nothing, if the HMRC was to tax this people would just transit through other major cities. Therefore there is nothing to gain by taxing transit passangers but there will be job losses at our airlines and airports if they are taxed.

Paul, London, England

The point of the tax is to hammer passengers for flying: remember it was meant to be a green tax. Why on earth should passengers who take two flights escape the tax?

Peter, London, UK

Has your correspondent never heard of an airline HUB. By definition, passengers fly into, then out of a hub, using it to change flights. The airline benefits by collecting revenue for both the inbound and outbound flights. How much tax is collected from this combined revenue?

Bill Peter, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

If it moves tax it! All britain cares about these days.

Andy, Correze, France

The Exchequer has lost nothing. Why should people be taxed just for changing planes ?

roger sykes, christchurch,

Former BA Chief Executive, Bob Ayling, went on record last week to destroy the myth that transit passengers benefit the UK economy. He probably understands the facts more than most and no longer having a paymaster has no axe to grind.

Brian Ross, Birchanger, Herts

Passengers that transfer at Heathrow don't make UK their final destination. So why tax them like they are?

The benefits for UK passengers is more frequent flights and more varied destinations. Ever wondered why there are so many direct flights to so many places from London? Blame the untaxed.

Ajay, Famington Hills, USA

With less transfer passengers their would be less flights to a "swath of destinations" ?(BA)
I accept there would be less frequent flights, but not fewer destinations. I don't see British business interests seriously affected, only BA and BAA interests.

John Morgan, Chesterfield,

I am sure that the government is working, furiously, to increase costs to transit and final destination passengers traveling through Heath Row.
Prepare for airlines and passengers to prefer Paris, Frankfurt and Europe to London. Eurostar to London would be an option if the passenger could bothered.

Tony Atkins, Cairns, Australia

The more Labour tries to increase the tax take the more there are loopholes for non residents. The losers as always are those trapped as UK residents having to pay the exorbitant taxes to subsidize others.

Mike, Alicante, Spain

Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam are better airports suited to this extra traffic.

William, LOndon, UK