Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary told the BBC that removing APD would not increase the airlines' profits.
The business group the CBI has also called for a lower rise in APD.
The changes in APD will also see it extended to private business jets for the first time.
Air passenger duty (APD) has risen by 8%, as announced by the government in the Autumn Statement last year.
The government defended the rise by saying it had frozen APD last year.
Mr O'Leary also said that as a result of APD, 30 million fewer overseas visitors had come to the UK in the past five years.
Willie Walsh, chief executive of International Airlines Group, the owner of British Airways, called on Chancellor George Osborne to set up an independent review of APD.
MSPs then took evidence on air passenger duty (apd) and aggregates tax from Amanda McMillan from Glasgow Airport and Richard Bird from the British Aggregates Association.
At the start of this month APD was reduced for direct long-haul flights from Northern Ireland, in response to competition from services in the Irish Republic, which has an Air Travel Tax of just three euros to any destination.
Mr Ewing did not accept Mr Harvie's premise saying an increase in direct air links to Scotland would end the need for a flight to London then another flight to Scotland and added he was disinclined to do complex statistical analysis on APD.
"We were able to take action to freeze APD last year and we have been able to be clear about what will then happen to it this year - I think that does represent a fair deal for passengers and I think it does also represent a fair deal for businesses, who are today enjoying a historically low rate of corporation tax, " she said.
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