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THE boss of Ryanair yesterday vowed to create 3500 new jobs in Scotland if the SNP scrap air passenger duty.

Michael O’Leary said that if the tax was axed, his company would invest millions in Scotland “the following day”.

And he claimed that by doubling Ryanair’s presence here, he would put up to £400million a year extra in taxes in the Scottish Government’s coffers.

Holyrood is taking control of APD under new devolved powers from Westminster. And the SNP say they

will halve it by the end of the current Scottish Parliament – likely to be in 2021 – then scrap it completely “when resources allow”.

Ministers plan to begin reducing the tax in 2018. But O’Leary wants them to move a lot faster.

He said: “I’m always wary of politicians’ promises on cutting taxes in three years. If you want to cut taxes, cut them now.”

Speaking at Glasgow Airport, O’Leary added: “Ryanair would expect to double our investment in Scotland if APD was taken away.

“We would expect to double our passenger numbers, which would bring another £300-£400million in tax

revenues to Scotland. It would also result in the creation of around 3500 new jobs directly at Scottish airports.

“There is a huge upside in scrapping APD and becoming the low-cost destination of the UK.”

APD costs £13 per adult passenger for flights of less than 2000 miles and £73 a head for long-haul journeys.

O’Leary said passenger numbers in Ireland had boomed since similar taxes there were scrapped two years ago.

He added: “The scrapping of APD would enable Ryanair to put many more aircraft up into Scotland and grow the business significantly up here.

“We would, over a two or three-year period, double our traffic in Scotland, going from nearly five million to around 10million passengers. It would reduce our costs by around £13 per passenger and transform airports, especially those like Prestwick.

“So it’s very important that we try to encourage the Government here to live up to its promises to reduce and preferably scrap APD.”

O’Leary was in Scotland to announce a range of new routes.

Ryanair are to start flying from Glasgow to Girona (Barcelona), Lisbon, Valencia, Palanga in Lithuania and Zadar in Croatia, as well as from Edinburgh to Milan, Barcelona Girona, Ibiza and Vigo in Spain, to Porto in Portugal, and from Prestwick to Girona.

(Image: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

O’Leary, once notorious for his tough attitude to passengers, said his firm were now making a fortune

from “being nice to customers”.

He joked: “If I’d known it was so good for business I’d have done it years ago instead of torturing them

for the past 18 years.”

Scots airports welcomed the new routes and backed O’Leary over APD.

A Glasgow Airport spokeswoman said Scotland’s position on the edge of Europe meant people had no choice but to fly, but they faced “some of the highest levels of taxation in the world”.

She urged ministers to cut the tax by 50 per cent “as soon as possible”.

Edinburgh Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar called for a 50 per cent cut “in one move”. He said: “APD is an

unfair tax that hammers hardworking families and hinders growth and job creation in Scotland.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman welcomed O’Leary’s “enthusiasm for realising the economic opportunities associated with scrapping Air Passenger Duty”.

She said Britain’s tax was the most expensive in Europe and a barrier to Scotland maintaining its air routes and developing new ones.

The spokeswoman said the plan to cut and then scrap the tax was “fundamental” to improving Scotland’s links with the world.

She added that those links were particularly important in the economic uncertainty caused by Brexit.