Originally Posted by
jmdavies86
One of the comments on the X post that I linked to above mentions a EUR10 tax on flights under 500km from Belgium (BRU-BHX is apparently 467km), and there is a proposal to increase said tax to EUR50 - is this actually true...?!
The Flemish Groen (i.e. Green) party has proposed that in economy the tax should be 50 euros for sub-500 km, 10 euros for all other flights within Europe and 30 euros for flights beyond Europe. Of course, this is just a proposal and may not happen, but so far the air travel tax has raised significantly less than the Belgian Treasury had hoped.
https://www.brusselstimes.com/721379...l-budget-talks
Brussels Airlines has also cut routes to Strasbourg (probably because EU politicians want to be seen to be green) and Basel.
The only other routes from Brussels under 500 km I can see are
- London which is a very wealthy market and probably generates plenty of pax flying onto west and central Africa via BRU or N.America via LHR
- Frankfurt. LH Group want to ensure cross-feed of pax between these 2 hubs
- Zurich. Like Frankfurt, cross-feeding two hubs within the same company
- Hamburg. Bit of an odd one this as I am surprised it's lasted, but the train journey is about 7 hours so perhaps the extra 10 euros tax outweighs the train journey time.
KLM also flies Brussels - Amsterdam, a large market for transfer pax given the paucity of long-haul routes at BRU and one that KLM cannot afford to ignore. Single sector BRU-AMS flights are priced at high fares, discouraging local O&D traffic. Pax flying from Belgium via a hub within 500 km but with a final destination beyond 500 km pay a lower rate of tax.
I cannot find any routes from Charleroi, Liege or Ostend that are under 500 km. The London City - Antwerp route (driven partly by the diamond trade) is at far lower weekly frequency than it was 20 years ago
I would imagine that when the Belgian Govt decided to impose a sub-500 km tax, they were well aware that flights to Birmingham would be vulnerable, with a decision being made that it was better to sacrifice this route and keep the Belgian voters, few of which would fly to BHX, happier.