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Taxes on children's flights will be abolished, leading to major holiday savings for families, if a proposal said to be supported by David Cameron is approved.

As it stands, Air Passenger Duty adds a minimum of £52 to flights for a family of four to a destination in Europe such as Spain or Italy, with tickets for two children under the age of 12 accounting for £26 of that additional cost. 

For flights to the United States and Canada, North and Western Africa, the Middle East and Russia east of the Ural ranges the ADP rises to £276, £138 for two children, while that cost stretches to £388, £194 for the kids, to places including Australia, Singapore and Indonesia.

The Air Passenger Duty paid by an average family of four with two children could be slashed by half

Over 30 aviation, tourism and business groups have banded together to propose the removal of the tax to make their airports or cities more attractive to travellers with a significant proportion of MPs backing the calls. 

Airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Newcastle, Bristol and Manchester airports, airlines such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, along with workers' union Unite and Chambers of Commerce in London and Scotland are pushing for the abolition of the tax. 

The just-launched Scrap The Tax On Family Flights campaign says the tax on children's flights is an unfair burden placed on families by the Government.  

Families pay an average of £52 for a short-haul flight and £276 for a long-haul flight under current laws

Getting rid of the tax for flights for kids will 'make an annual holiday more affordable for hardworking families, at a minimal cost to the Government', claims the campaign.

They say the the move would cost the Treasury just 1.6 per cent of the £3billion in APD incomed predicted for next year, which equals approximately £50million.

British families pay more tax to fly away for a holiday than anywhere else in the world, and more than three times as much as German passengers and 30 times what French passengers pay.

Only four other European countries place a comparable levy to the UK while the Netherlands, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland have all removed their departure taxes.

British families pay more tax to fly away for a holiday than any other country in the world

The Scrap The Tax campaign invites families to use their online calculator to work out what they would pay for a holiday abroad, and to forward their results onto their local MP.

Mr Cameron is said to have supported the idea when it was raised by Andrew Bridgen at a Tory MPs meeting in October.

The Sunday Express quotes the Prime Minister's response to Andrew Bridgen when the North West Leicestershire MP brought up the subject in that gathering: 'I really like this one. I have three children under 10 myself.'

It is said 33 MPS support an early day motion to have the flight tax for children axed while the proposal has been put forward to George Osborne for consideration for use in the Chancellor's Autumn Statement on December 3.