Aer Lingus taxes and charges

n97 mini · 13-06-2011 12:20pm #1

Normally a complaint levelled at another airline but I'm finding AL's taxes and charges are noteworthy of late.

The link to the Taxes and Charges page does not explain any of these.

Can someone explain why a fare that costs €4.99 more incurs an extra €13.08 in tax?

Are Aer Lingus becoming more and more of an irrelevance?
Are the only people that are still flying with Aer Lingus only doing so cos they're Ryanair-haters?

SandyfordGuy · 13-06-2011 12:35pm

If you click taxes and charges you should see a breakdown of these taxes I believe, be interesting to see what these are.

LXFlyer · 13-06-2011 12:37pm

It sounds like the second one is attracting the higher rate of UK APD (£24) rather than the lower rate (£12) or else one attracts the Heathrow Passenger Service charge and the second doesn't.

n97 mini · 13-06-2011 12:46pm

SandyfordGuy wrote: »

If you click taxes and charges you should see a breakdown of these taxes I believe, be interesting to see what these are.

I said in my post that none are explained! Here's the text brought up by the link. None apply to the UK.

Taxes, Fees & Charges

Taxes, fees and charges
Security surcharge
September 11th security fee
Government Airport Departure Tax
Fuel surcharge

1. Taxes, fees and charges
You must pay applicable taxes, fees and charges imposed by government or other authority, or by the operator of an airport. If you do not use your confirmed reservation, you will be entitled to claim a refund of any taxes, fees and charges (excluding the fuel surcharge) which you have paid, an administration fee will apply except for bookings originating in the USA. For more information, please refer to Conditions of Carriage.

2. Security surcharge
Aer Lingus has a passenger surcharge on all flights to or from the USA for insurance and security. This surcharge applies per flight, as detailed below, to all passengers including children and infants on long-haul flights.

Ex-Ireland €5.00 per flight
Ex-USA $8.00 per flight
Ex-UK £8.00 per flight
3. September 11th security fee
You must pay a $2.50 September 11th security fee for each enplanement at a US airport, which is levied by airports in the USA, for flights departing the USA. This fee is included in the Taxes and charges amount.
4. Government Airport Departure Tax
The Irish Government have imposed the Air Travel Tax (ATT), an excise duty on air travel and it will be charged, levied and paid in respect of every departure of a passenger on an aircraft from an Irish airport on or after 30th March 2009.

The tax applies as and from 30th March 2009 to the departure of each passenger on an aircraft from an Irish airport, irrespective of when a passenger booked or purchased the flight ticket.

This is not an tax imposed by Aer Lingus and more information can be found on The Office of the Revenue Commissioners website.

5. Fuel surcharge
A fuel surcharge is applicable to longhaul flights to/from North America and other long haul destinations from Ireland and other European countries. This surcharge applies per flight, as detailed below, to all passengers.

€65/$95 or equivalent each-way per passenger applies to New York and Boston.
€75/$115 or equivalent each-way per passenger applies to Chicago, Orlando and Madrid-Washington.
€85/$125 or equivalent each-way per passenger applies per flight to other long haul destinations.
The fuel surcharge is non-refundable.

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LXFlyer · 13-06-2011 1:26pm

If you try to book a flight on flybmi.com you will get a full breakdown of taxes and charges.

The two biggest out of LHR are the UK APD and the Heathrow Passenger Service Charge.

One of those two is the reason for the change in price, and the latter appears to be a moving feast.

Snow Leopard · 13-06-2011 6:48pm

EI subsidise the Taxes and Charges on the 0.00 fares so as to keep the lowest price low. The 49.99 fare will be the fare advertised for the route. All other fares (anything above 0.00) will attract the full amount of Taxes and Charges.

€63.07 is the full amount of Taxes and Charges but if this were to be advertised as their "lowest fare" it wouldn't come across as very cheap and certainly wouldn't draw people who are on the lookout for a good deal to the website.

The charges that flights ex LHR attract nowadays are truly extortionate. There's few airports in the world that could get away with charging such an amount really.

Aard · 13-06-2011 7:58pm

I'd love if Aer Lingus went the Easyjet way and just displayed the full price (incl all taxes, charges, booking fees) of a ticket on the site. They could then give the full breakdown afterwards. It's just such a let-down every time my €19.99 flight comes in at over €60.

n97 mini · 13-06-2011 10:08pm

I've been flying to the UK a lot lately and I have to say that Ryanair, for all the criticism levelled at them are a lot more transparent on fares than Aer Lingus are. The icing on the cake with Ryanair is the PerfectCard debit card from the Blanchardstown centre... I've saved over €100 on credit card fees in the last 2 months.

dog-man-star · 20-06-2011 9:53pm

One interesting development at Aer Lingus I noticed this week was when checking in at the airport it only offered me the middle seat, no option for window or aisle seat.

It's unlikely someone flying alone would want the middle seat and I thought it might be a ploy to try encourage people to pay extra to pay for their seat in advance online.

I checked in at Heathrow this morning almost 3 hours before the flight and the only seats optioned to me were middle seats. Yet on the flight there were plenty of spare aisle and window seats.

Thought this might be a sneaky way of trying to get people to part with more money on future bookings.

Carawaystick · 21-06-2011 12:09am

Snow Leopard wrote: »

EI subsidise the Taxes and Charges on the 0.00 fares so as to keep the lowest price low. The 49.99 fare will be the fare advertised for the route. All other fares (anything above 0.00) will attract the full amount of Taxes and Charges.

€63.07 is the full amount of Taxes and Charges but if this were to be advertised as their "lowest fare" it wouldn't come across as very cheap and certainly wouldn't draw people who are on the lookout for a good deal to the website.

The charges that flights ex LHR attract nowadays are truly extortionate. There's few airports in the world that could get away with charging such an amount really.

If Aer Lingus subsidise the ``taxes and charges'' on certain seats on the same route(or even plane) then clearly what they classify as the fare is bull and is misleading

nd001 · 27-06-2011 4:06pm

I have in the last couple of days received my refund from aer lingus after I cancelled my flight from barcelona back to dublin before the threatened strikes. As you are all probably aware aer lingus advised passengers to cancel their flight or re book on a different date. I chose to cancel my return flight and book with ryanair which cost €262 for myself and my girlfriend. Aer lingus refunded me €178 which leaves me out of pocket €92. Have I a case in claiming my €92 euro back off aerlingus. Thanks in adavnce

Aer Lingus taxes and charges

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