Travel Tax to be scraped by new Government

David086

The FG/LAB led government has said its to scrap the travel tax implemented by Fianna Fáil. This means routes will be re-introduced. I assume Ryanair will just reverse there's before the tax but what about Aer Lingus? Are they to open the previous US routes? Such as SFO & IAD?

Anyone have a route they'd like to see Aer Lingus fly?

Victor

I think you've bought into the airlines (Michael O'Leary's in particular) sales pushes. Travel taxes have little to do with where airlines flay, other than to marginally affect their profit margins.

A €3 tax has even less affect on the trans-Atlantic trade.

FlutterinBantam

David086 wrote: »

The FG/LAB led government has said its to scrap the travel tax implemented by Fianna Fáil. This means routes will be re-introduced. I assume Ryanair will just reverse there's before the tax but what about Aer Lingus? Are they to open the previous US routes? Such as SFO & IAD?

Anyone have a route they'd like to see Aer Lingus fly?

The should not just scrape it, get rid of it altogether.

BuffyBot

Are they to open the previous US routes? Such as SFO & IAD?

SFO and IAD weren't closed due to the travel tax, and on longhaul €10 doesn't make much of a different to the overall price - so I doubt we'll see those happen again.

If anything, there may be some short-haul expansion.

Storm 10

We might lose the travel tax but it will be wiped out by fuel price hikes due to the trouble in Libya, wait until you see how much more you are going to pay for your flight, this morning in parts of Dublin petrol is gone to 1.60 per litre ref RTE News. I cannot understand how fuel companies are so quick to put the price up but not take it down.

Tenger

Storm 10 wrote: »

We might lose the travel tax but it will be wiped out by fuel price hikes due to the trouble in Libya, ........ I cannot understand how fuel companies are so quick to put the price up but not take it down.

I always love that, the fuel bought months ago and already delivered, suddenly gets more expensive due to possible reductions in future supply. Its legalised profiteering, you don't see the prices drop when OPEC release a glut of reserves to drop the worldwide cost per barrel!


However it would guess that any increase in the price of jet fuel would reduce any chance of seeing any restarting of routes to the US West coast, those longer routes are more susceptible to fuel price fluctuation.

In relation to the travel tax. The E10(then E3) tax mainly affected short UK/Euro routes. On these the travel tax was more noticeable (helped by the airlines complaining about it) I don't think scrapping the tax will mean route re-instatement. FG say they will incentivise airlines to do so, but why restart a route that wasn't profitable?
The 4 UK routes that FR dropped last year were taken up by Aer Lingus Regional using the more economical 70 seat ATR rather than the 189 seat B738. Will ending the travel tax mean FR automatically restart their routes?

EDIT: To respond to !MAVERICK! below:
I should have put that another way. Of course a full B738 would be more economical than a full ATR-72.
I should have made the point that the ATR seems to be better suited to the thinner routes operated from SNN. (And indeed ORK/NOC/KIR/GWY) The 189 seater B738 is a big aircraft. 3 daily flights (for example) would need a market of at least 400 each way per day to be profitable, (L/F of >70%) while the smaller ATR can be sustained profitably with a smaller market of approx 150 each way per day. In the current Irish market sustainability and profitability of routes will determine whether or not the airlines restart them, not the abolition of the travel tax.

!MAVERICK!

Tenger wrote: »

I
The 4 UK routes that FR dropped last year were taken up by Aer Lingus Regional using the more economical 70 seat ATR rather than the 189 seat B738. Will ending the travel tax mean FR automatically restart their routes?

Please tell me how this is more economical? 189 people delivered from EIDW TO EGSS would cost around 25 euro per passenger in fuel costs.

The turbo prop ATR would burn nearly as much fuel as the 800. But yet only delivering only around a third of the passengers that the 800 would deliver. 3 Landings in an ATR would cost nearly 2000 . While one landing in a 737- 800 carrrying 189 people would cost around 500 euro.

I cant see how this is more economical...

Cessna_Pilot

Storm 10 wrote: »

We might lose the travel tax but it will be wiped out by fuel price hikes due to the trouble in Libya, wait until you see how much more you are going to pay for your flight, this morning in parts of Dublin petrol is gone to 1.60 per litre ref RTE News. I cannot understand how fuel companies are so quick to put the price up but not take it down.

It's blatent oppurtunism! (if thats the word!)

I believe Kuwait came out today and said they upped output so as to make up for the lack of oil from Libya, sure that won't stop the fuel companies hiking it up anyway. Scumbags!

dowlingm

!MAVERICK! wrote: »

The turbo prop ATR would burn nearly as much fuel as the 800

Can you quote specific figures for the 738 burn rate/cruise level and the AT4's equivalents?