Slashing air passenger duty and a low-carbon transport system are SNP pledges

The SNP has pledged to cut air passenger duty in half while increasing low-carbon travel in Scotland, its manifesto for re-election to the Scottish Government at Holyrood said yesterday.

The SNP said it will provide a £62.5m fund to create low-carbon infrastructure and "continue to provide record investment" in walking and cycling so that ten per cent of everyday journeys are made by bike by 2020. It would examine the case for extending the Stirling-Alloa line to Dumfermline by upgrading the Longannet freight line and electrify the Stirling-Dunblane Alloa and Glasgow-Edinburgh-Shotts routes and support "shorter and more frequent journeys between Aberdeen and Inverness".

It would bring forward a Transport Bill to improve bus services, improve the regulation of road works and to enable and enforce responsible parking and introduce another Bill to require all public vehicles carrying children to fit seatbelts.

And the SNP would, when the tax is devolved to Scotland, "reduce the burden of air passenger duty by 50%" and "abolish it entirely when resources allow" in order to attract more visitors to Scotland and secure new international routes.