LEEDS-Bradford and other smaller airports are punished by a tax regime more unfair than any country other than Chad, MPs warn today.

Air Passenger Duty (APD) is the “principal threat” to the success of regional airports which are vital for economic growth, a hard-hitting report by the transport select committee says.

Ministers are urged to “stand up for smaller airports”, with the warning: “Only Chad operates a less competitive air taxation regime than the UK.”

And the report condemns the “double-charging” which means passengers are hit when they fly from a regional airport to Heathrow – and then again to fly on abroad.

It says: “The double-charging of APD disproportionately affects passengers travelling from UK smaller airports.

“A passenger who took a return flight from Leeds-Bradford airport to New York via Heathrow would be charged APD on the outbound flights from Leeds-Bradford to Heathrow and from Heathrow to New York.

“In addition, they would be charged APD on the return inbound flight from Heathrow to Leeds-Bradford.”

The verdict was welcomed by Leeds-Bradford Airport which has long criticised the burden of APD.

Tony Hallwood, its aviation development director, said: “We need the Government to increase their support to the aviation industry to allow us to expand our business further.

“We now look forward to continuing discussions on reducing the level of APD, which would remove the disadvantage that UK airports have over our international competitors.”

The report also warns that:

* Devolution of APD to Scotland - where the SNP wants to axe it altogether - could put Northern airports “at a serious competitive disadvantage”.

* Regional airports will only benefit from expansion of Heathrow and Gatwick if slots are “ring-fenced” for them.

* That the scrapping of APD for children under 12 - from May - will do “little for smaller airports”, because most families fly long-haul from international airports.

However, the committee stops short of calling for APD - which raises £3 billion every year for the Treasury - to be abolished altogether.

And it notes it is not easy to “amend” APD because of EU competition law, which struck out exemption for domestic flights in 1998.

Nevertheless, it quotes a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which found scrapping APD would deliver a 0.45 per cent boost to GDP in the first 12 months.

The study “concluded that the abolition of APD would more than pay for itself through increased tax revenues from other sources, due to the consequent increase in economic activity”.