Chamber and committees

Question reference: S7W-03027

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: 8 September 2026
Current status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 21 September 2026

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what passenger and aviation data it relied on when it concluded that the proposed Air Departure Tax exemption for domestic flights from Highlands and Islands airports, including Inverness Airport, is necessary to support connectivity, including (a) the source, (b) year of the most recent data considered and (c) any equivalent evidence relating to Aberdeen International Airport.

Answer

The Scottish Government considered a range of evidence in reaching its conclusion that an exemption from Air Departure Tax (ADT)is necessary to protect Highlands and Islands aviation connectivity.

This included evidence gathered through the ‘Delivering Scotland's Air Departure Tax’ consultation, which ran from 29 January to 26 March 2026 ,as well as wider stakeholder engagement.

The evidence gathered via our consultation highlighted the particular connectivity challenges faced by communities and businesses in the Highlands and Islands region, which necessitates a continued tax exemption for the carriage of passengers to UK airports.

The Scottish Government has also analysed official data published by the UK’s aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA),as well as private sector passenger and route-level data provided by RDC Aviation. These datasets disaggregate data by individual Scottish airports, including Inverness Airport and Aberdeen Airport.

Data on aircraft movements, including for commercial scheduled flights and business aviation, are published monthly by the CAA. Multiple respondents to the ‘Delivering Scotland's Air Departure Tax’ consultation cited CAA data in their responses, with the most recent data sourced from 2025.

During the policy development process, the Scottish Government utilised passenger and route-level data from the previous full financial year (2024-25), obtained via RDC Aviation’s Apex platform.

The Scottish Government additionally considered various sources of evidence in our subsidy control assessment, including:

‘Scottish Islands Survey’, Scottish Government(2023)
‘Scotland National Strategy for Economic Transformation: Evidence from Regional Economic Partnerships’, Scottish Government (2022)
‘Cost of Living: impact on rural communities in Scotland’, Scottish Affairs Committee (2024)
‘Strategic Approach – Islands Connectivity Plan’, Transport Scotland (2025)
‘Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Highlands and Islands’, Scottish Human Rights Commission (2024)
Western Isles Transport and Health Working Group, HITRANS (2025)
‘Remote and Rural Healthcare Inquiry’, Scottish Parliament Health, Social Care and Sport Committee (2024)
‘Regional Economic Strategy’, Highlands and Islands Regional Economic Partnership (2025)
‘Rural and Regional Disadvantage in the Highlands and Islands’, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) (2022)

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