Ryanair to add 25c booking levy to cover EU Emissions charges

mikedragon32

Ryanair is to add 25c to all bookings from next week to cover the cost of the European Emissions Trading System (ETS) green tax scheme.

The carrier, which will bring in the levy from Tuesday January 17th, described ETS as an “eco-looney tax”. It said it would cost Ryanair passengers between €15 million and €20 million during 2012.

“Ryanair does not believe that European aviation should be included in the ETS scheme since it accounts for less than 2 per cent of the EU’s CO2 emissions," Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said.

“This latest EU stealth tax will damage traffic, tourism, European competitiveness and jobs at a time when no other economic block is including aviation in their ETS schemes.

“This new ETS tax is the latest in a long line of cost increases imposed on Europe’s air passengers by the European Union, which reduces the competitiveness of EU air transport with yet another misguided ‘environmental’ tax which does nothing for the environment but penalises EU consumers and families,” he said.

Earlier this week Gulf airlines Emirates and Etihad Airways warned of higher ticket prices today as they look to pass on costs of a European Union carbon trading scheme to passengers.

Under plans to tackle climate change that came into effect on January 1st, airlines touching down or taking off in the 27-nation European Union and three neighbouring nations must account for their CO2 emissions as part of an expansion of the world's largest carbon market.

from Irish Times

I don't think they'll be the only ones to add it but I suspect they'll be the only ones to keep it separate from the airfare, as they do every other charge.

keithclancy

mikedragon32 wrote: »

from Irish Times

I don't think they'll be the only ones to add it but I suspect they'll be the only ones to keep it separate from the airfare, as they do every other charge.

Fantastic, I love being able to see a breakdown of costs.

I hate it when everything is lumped in together, much better when you can see what you are paying for each item.

I.E. Having the option not to have to pay for a bag.

Barely Hedged

With all the add ons Ryanair have appended on in recent times they're losing their competitive edge and really offering nothing else to balance it out.

AngryLips

keithclancy wrote: »

Fantastic, I love being able to see a breakdown of costs.

I hate it when everything is lumped in together, much better when you can see what you are paying for each item.

Funnily enough the taxes that Ryanair quote on their fares have no correlation to the actual airport taxes they incur from the DAA

The "bothering to book with them" admin fee per leg of journey is still the most ridiculous though.

Tombo2000

Barely Hedged wrote: »

With all the add ons Ryanair have appended on in recent times they're losing their competitive edge and really offering nothing else to balance it out.

Ireland is such a small part of Ryanair's business now.

Plus, its only them and Aer Lingus. They only need to be a teeny bit cheaper than Aer Lingus to fill their planes.

Barely Hedged

Tombo2000 wrote: »

Ireland is such a small part of Ryanair's business now.

Plus, its only them and Aer Lingus. They only need to be a teeny bit cheaper than Aer Lingus to fill their planes.

That's very true. I often find AL are about €10 more expensive when booked in advance. I choose them because I think the benefits of paying that extra bit of money are worth it.

Having said that, funnily enough I booked Cityjet there today for cheaper than Ryanair on a flight on Paddys weekend. That's happened me a few times recently and not on a last minute fare!

P. Breathnach

Tombo2000 wrote: »

... They only need to be a teeny bit cheaper than Aer Lingus to fill their planes.

For me, they would need to be more than a teeny bit cheaper. I am prepared to pay more in order to have a chance of being treated like a real person rather than simply as a source of revenue.

maximoose

They'll probably still be miles cheaper than Aer Lingus. 25c? Pfft.

robinph

AngryLips wrote: »

keithclancy wrote: »

Fantastic, I love being able to see a breakdown of costs.

I hate it when everything is lumped in together, much better when you can see what you are paying for each item.

Funnily enough the taxes that Ryanair quote on their fares have no correlation to the actual airport taxes they incur from the DAA

The "bothering to book with them" admin fee per leg of journey is still the most ridiculous though.

If you mean the credit card fee then that will probably not be around at the current levels for much longer.

Every other airline charges you the exact same as Ryanair. Ryanair are just more explicit about exactly what the various parts of the fees are for. Other airlines just include those things in the base price.

I still think that they can be crap, but people need to be complaining about the right things.

AngryLips

But why create a made-up itemisation of your fare when the only thing that matters to the customer is the total cost? I don't mind unbundling various things like baggage, pre-assigned seating or priority boarding but I couldn't care less about any associated cost below that which can't be reasonably avoided. That's what I'm complaining about, it's a valid point in my opinion.

robinph

AngryLips wrote: »

But why create a made-up itemisation of your fare when the only thing that matters to the customer is the total cost? I don't mind unbundling various things like baggage, pre-assigned seating or priority boarding but I couldn't care less about any associated cost below that which can't be reasonably avoided. That's what I'm complaining about, it's a valid point in my opinion.

They have the right to blame someone else for the prices going up by 25c. Or whatever other charge they want to highlight that cannot be avoided.

robinph

AngryLips wrote: »

But why create a made-up itemisation of your fare when the only thing that matters to the customer is the total cost? I don't mind unbundling various things like baggage, pre-assigned seating or priority boarding but I couldn't care less about any associated cost below that which can't be reasonably avoided. That's what I'm complaining about, it's a valid point in my opinion.

They have the right to blame someone else for the prices going up by 25c. Or whatever other charge they want to highlight that cannot be avoided.

AngryLips

No they don't, that's completely ridiculous. When I ask for a bill or a receipt I don't expect it to itemise the operating costs of the company I'm dealing with down to the wages of the staff or the council rates they incur. The only thing I expect to see is VAT and that's because it's a tax on the transaction itself.

robinph

AngryLips wrote: »

No they don't, that's completely ridiculous. When I ask for a bill or a receipt I don't expect it to itemise the operating costs of the company I'm dealing with down to the wages of the staff or the council rates they incur. The only thing I expect to see is VAT and that's because it's a tax on the transaction itself.

Well just ignore any price changes from Ryanair then.

Barely Hedged

robinph wrote: »

Well just ignore any price changes from Ryanair then.

That would be true and very admirable of a company to explain in extensive detail why their end product has changed in price but my problem with Ryanair is that these details or ever increasing add ons are disingenious and mainly serve to manipulate the figures they release to the markets.

I'd say it does warrant a discussion rather than just ignorance of it.

keithclancy

I fly from here in NL quite a bit back to Ireland.

I'll just pick whatever airline is cheapest and follow their rules to avoid any extra charges.

I check the price i'll be charged on my Credit Card and what I'm getting for my money rather than get ratty about how they advertise the aforementioned charges on their website.

Ryanair is usually cheaper than Aer Lingus, but i'll always look at the total cost of the Journey, with a Plus or Minus factor for time included.

Its usually the Airports that are the dealbreaker for me, Dublin Airport is a joke, the Car Rental drop off place isn't even near the Airport, so factor in an extra hour for dropping the car off.

Cork is much better, smaller and the Car Rental drop off is a few hundred meters from the Terminal.

On the other side, Amsterdam .. for me is a bit of a pain, frikkin massive. Eindhoven on the other hand is 25 minutes from my front door to the queue for the Airplane.

In the end a short flight is the same as a bus, Ryanair are cheap, compare it to the Trains (ICE,Thalys,Fyra, TGV) and usually way cheaper (Unless you live here and have a Railplus or Bahncard)

Look at the TOTAL cost, I've met so many people that got a 40 euro flight, only to spend 3 hours on a bus to some airport in the backwater of nowhere and then fly into another obscure place, spend more money on buses/trains and have less time on their trip due to the inconvenient times.

AngryLips

Barely Hedged wrote: »

That would be true and very admirable of a company to explain in extensive detail why their end product has changed in price

That would be the case if the product or service is usually a fixed price but with air fares this is not the case. Airlines adjust pricing for any number of reasons all the time so fares are always going to be variable. If we take this argument to the logical conclusion then do you also expect them to itemise some kind of "demand surchage" for flights over busy periods such as Friday evenings, Monday mornings and school holidays? I don't hear anyone arguing for that level of transparency on their flight ticket yet it's okay to itemise highly selective operating costs such as the European carbon tax? Give me a break.

Barely Hedged

AngryLips wrote: »

That would be the case if the product or service is usually a fixed price but with air fares this is not the case. Airlines adjust pricing for any number of reasons all the time so fares are always going to be variable. If we take this argument to the logical conclusion then do you also expect them to itemise some kind of "demand surchage" for flights over busy periods such as Friday evenings, Monday mornings and school holidays? I don't hear anyone arguing for that level of transparency on their flight ticket yet it's okay to itemise highly selective operating costs such as the European carbon tax? Give me a break.

What are you talking about? You took a sentence fragment from my post and went off on some tangent and then deduced a logical conclusion from it. Where's the logic in that?

I was talking about add ons and catches they have been putting on to all their base fares recently to massage the figures they present to the markets. I cant think of anyone that would question why their flight at 19:30 on a Friday evening was more expensive than a flight mid morning on a Wednesday.

AngryLips

Barely Hedged wrote: »

What are you talking about? You took a sentence fragment from my post and went off on some tangent and then deduced a logical conclusion from it. Where's the logic in that

Sorry, I was actually addressing the argument in the discussion about whether price increases should be explained in the fare structure of the ticket. I just used an excerpt of your comment to make my point. All I'm saying is that you can't selectively itemise price increases on a product that's price-variable without itemising all the other variables that go into the cost of the ticket (yet this is what Ryanair is doing). From a consumer point of view, if the cost is unavoidable then why itemise it...

irelandrover

AngryLips wrote: »

Sorry, I was actually addressing the argument in the discussion about whether price increases should be explained in the fare structure of the ticket. I just used an excerpt of your comment to make my point. All I'm saying is that you can't selectively itemise price increases on a product that's price-variable without itemising all the other variables that go into the cost of the ticket (yet this is what Ryanair is doing). From a consumer point of view, if the cost is unavoidable then why itemise it...

Surely Ryanair itemising the tax is the same as a shop itemising the VAT on a product which a lot of places also do.

AngryLips

irelandrover wrote: »

Surely Ryanair itemising the tax is the same as a shop itemising the VAT on a product which a lot of places also do.

VAT is a tax on the transaction not a tax on the business. This is the reason you don't expect to see various other taxes incurred by the business you're dealing with itemised on your receipts, such as corporation tax.