Tax - low-cost vs regualr carriers

[knobbygb]

Why does the tax differ so much between 'low cost' and 'regular' carriers then? I know there was a lot of shouting a couple of years back that the tax should be a percentage of the fare. Have I missed somthing?

e.g.

BA LGW to AMS, 30 July - 7 Aug £37+£29.60 tax
EZY LGW to AMS, same dates, £51.80+£11.43 tax

Same appears true of Ryanair and others on similar routes. I don't claim to understand the make-up of the tax but I thought there was a minimum of £10 for flights within the EU, plus whatever the foreign authority charge for the return trip, plus a £5 security charge. How can the £11.43 figure be correct then?

Have the low cost carriers been given some kind of special deal here or what? Apologies if I'm missing somthing obvious.

(Notice though that BA are easily cheaper than the low-cost option when tax isn't included - I chose the dates at randon - same is true most other days).

Are we being ripped off even more than usual?

[Hartington]

This "tax" is set by each airport. In fact, it's not a tax, it's a use fee. If you look carefully the fare details and ticket should say something like "taxes/fees/charges" rather than simply "taxes".

Some airports set the fee for departures, others for arrivals. They can vary by destination (both specific cities and generic areas such as "domestic" or "europe". Some airlines negotiate a specific fee. All fees are per person.

The fees are posted on a usenet group. This URL

http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=2002071507180066937%40zetnet.co.uk&prev=/groups%3Fdq%3D%26num%3D25%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26group%3Dalt.airports.uk.edinburgh%26start%3D25

should take you to the latest posting. (Sorry it's a bit long).

If that does not work go to www.google.com select groups and work your way through to alt.airports.uk.edinburgh where the post is dated 14 Jul 2002 under the title "PSC tables".

[knobbygb]

Thanks, that explains a lot, but it still doesn't explain why two carriers on an identical route, at very similar times, can levy such different charges, particularly as LGW does not seem to differentiate between carriers in terms of PSC's.

I realise that not all the charge is tax, but even so, the total EZY charge in this case seems to be less than just the tax element of the BA flight.

I can only assume that EZY are absorbing some of the charges into the fare to make the 'tax' elemnt look less excessive, but surely they'd be more likely to do the opposite to make the base fare look cheaper and 'point the finger' at the airports/government etc.

[Gaza]

The actual tax, APD, does not vary between the low-cost and the full service airlines. What does vary is how they cheoose to show airport charges and insurance surcharge.