George Osborne has said on more than one occasion in the past few months that he is working towards the UK having a low tax environment suitable for greater overseas investment. It is a laudable plan but does it stand up to scrutiny?

The UK airports sector has been campaigning heavily over the past 12 months on the eye-wateringly high levels of Air Passenger Duty (APD) levied in this country. APD - the Government's tax on flights - is currently the highest anywhere in the world, and has risen by between 160% and 360% since 2007.

This time last year, air passengers learned of the Government's intention to increase the tax on flights, Air Passenger Duty (APD), by twice the rate of inflation - a rise that gave the UK's air passengers a further lead in remaining the most heavily taxed anywhere in the world.

Since the air passenger duty was introduced in 1994, no study has been done about its economic impacts. If we are to levy the highest air tax in the world, surely we must understand the economic impact of doing so.

On Tuesday, Parliament granted time to debate an important issue that a growing number of constituents across the UK have been urging policy-makers to re-assess - the high cost of Air Passenger Duty (APD).

The summer recess is normally a quiet period for MPs. Their offices slow down, they take holidays and politics seems slower paced. The extraordinary success of the Olympics may have taken the focus of the media off Westminster but that does not mean that MPs have gotten away with a quiet summer.

The simple message for the Chancellor coming out of this Budget from the travel industry is this: we support your efforts to make the UK the most competitive place to do business in the world, but to do this we need you to apply that logic to every tax, not just the ones voters have heard about.

So next time you buy a flight ticket and wonder why it is more expensive, we can all be clear - it is because Mr Osborne chose not to reform Air Passenger Duty and make the tax on flying fairer. This was his opportunity to show he was listening to the concerns of holidaymakers and business travellers. He failed comprehensively to do so. It is very disappointing.

Today, the Chancellor has ignored the voice of tourism, of British business and of ordinary travellers. Buried in his Autumn Statement are plans for a double-inflation rise in Air Passenger Duty (APD) which will hit the UK economy in 2012 and beyond.

I am a realist. The Chancellor will not announce a cut in APD today. But what I would like to see from the Treasury would be a compromise - for him to establish the principle that future Emissions Trading Scheme ticket price rises are offset by reductions in APD.

he hullaballoo surrounding a certain witness at this week's Home Office Select Committee hearing and the highly-trailed backbench debate on fuel prices obscured an equally important debate taking place in the Commons yesterday on the aviation sector.

Britain has the highest air ticket tax - known as Air Passenger Duty (APD) - of any country in the world. As an island nation, you can see why successive policy-makers have raised APD since its introduction in 1994. Most Brits have little choice but to pay the departure tax - and it's been a boon to the Treasury.

That Willie Walsh that is so vexed about APD should worry us all. And not just because, as passengers, APD means higher fares on our holidays or business trips. Yes, it's true that for passengers the costs are huge.

Air Passenger Duty is a poorly understood tax. Research conducted last year found that just one in three passengers look at the proportion of tax they pay on flights. If more passengers did, they might be in for a surprise.