According to the Mail Online, Alistair Darling admitted yesterday that taxes on airline flights which are being raised tomorrow, are to help to pay for bailling out the banks.

Mr Darling explained that the higher air passenger duty is needed to help raise cash to help the nation’s finances.

The surcharge on flights, which will add up to £340 to the costs of a family of four flying long haul,was originally said to be for environmental reasons.

Airlines have warned that the tax will cause the loss of thousands of jobs and will not help to reduce global warming.

Speaking to a group of journalists in Newcastle, Mr Darling said:

“I am quite blunt about it, we need to raise money to pay for some of the things we have done.

“If unemployment goes up there is a cost obviously to the family, there is also a cost in increased benefits.  Northern Rock has cost a lot of money.

“What we are doing is putting a pound on to your average ticket, which about three quarters of people travel on and you consider the cost of an air ticket, I don’t think a pound is that unreasonable.

“In the North East, we have spent billions on a bank for very good reasons.

“We could have stood back and said “There you are, tough luck”. We didn’t because that was the wrong approach.”

Michelle Di Leo, who is a director of the lobbying group Flying Matters, said Mr Darling had ‘let the cat out of the bag on this flying stealth tax’.

She added:

“Just when the economy needs all the help it can get, he is imposing a tax which undermines job creation in the tourism sector, prices ordinary families out of flying and all for absolutely no environmental benefit.”

 ”When people realise how much this stealth tax will cost them and how much damage it is doing to the economy, any politician who commits to scrapping it will get an electoral boost.” 

The cost of air tickets will increase tomorrow when the first of two increases in air passenger duty will take effect and will  hit long-haul passengers travelling in business and first class sections.

British Airways said the combined effect of the two increases would mean the cost of a flight for a family of four who travel to Australia after November 1 2010 will increase by at least £340.

Tomorrow’s increase will see duty for short-haul economy flights to Europe rise from £10 to £11, but on longer journeys the cost will increase by £30.

November next year will see economy class passengers on the shortest flights having to pay an extra £12, and premium class passengers on flights longer than 6,000 miles will see an increase from £110  in November 2009, to £170.

Silla Maizey, BA’s customer services director, said:

“These huge tax hikes are very bad news for holidaymakers – and completely unjustified.

“The Government says the tax is environmental, but its own figures show that aviation already meets its environmental costs without any increase in passenger duty.’”