People now have to pay an extra US $30 (around EC$81) on return flights to or from Antigua & Barbuda after a new tax took effect on Independence Day, November 1.

Opposition legislators in the Senate yesterday failed in their bid to muster enough support to strike down a Bill, which would increase taxes at the V C Bird International Airport.

Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer has described as reasonable and fair, a government decision to increase airport taxes and has brushed aside suggestions that the tax is harmful for the tourism industry.