Airport Taxes
When you buy your flight ticket (whether direct with the airline, or part of a package holiday),
a portion of the total cost for the ticket is for airport taxes - or "air passenger duty" (APD)
as its more commonly known.
From 1st February 2007, tax on flights was increased by the UK government as mentioned in the 2006 pre-budget report by Gordon Brown.
This duty is payable on all flights from UK airports and the amount of tax you pay depends on where you are flying to:
- £10.00 for flights with the UK (except Scottish Highlands and Islands)
- £10.00 for economy flights to EEA countries
- £20.00 for standard flights to EEA countries
- £40.00 for economy flights to countries outside the EEA
- £80.00 for standard flights to countries outside the EEA
- For international flights, the taxes are levied by the destination country
Remember that the duty is per person travelling and that although UK air passenger duty is payable on flights departing from the UK,
when you return from your holiday, the country you fly back from will 99.9% of the time impose their equivalent tax on the flight
so you'll end up paying roughly the same again to come back.
On a typical Easyjet flight from London Luton to Basel, Switzerland the APD is £27.00.
There has been some criticism over budget airlines advertising flights for as little as £1 in some instances - which technically
is true - but once the other little bits are added such as airport taxes, credit card fees to buy online (£4.50 for Easyjet) etc,
the cost can quite easily come to up to £60 or more - not quite the £1 that people were let to believe in
the adverts!
Interesting Fact: Over 230 million people flew to and from the UK in 2005 - up from approximately 105 million in 1990.
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