Austria is to follow Germany and introduce what it calls an “ecological air travel levy” similar to Germany’s new tax scheme due to be effective January 1 next year.
Passengers boarding flights in Austria will be charged €8 for European flights and €40 for long haul flights.
Airlines in Austria have already slammed the new tax and said they will pass it on to their passengers.
Adding to the tax on pax, the UK Air Passenger Duty (APD) was hiked as from Monday where passengers flying to destinations more than 6,000 miles from London, including Singapore and Australia, will pay £85 in economy class and a whopping £170 in premium classes – a 55% increase.
UK airports have been among those protesting about the APD increases but that would appear somewhat hypocritical given that several secondary airport in the UK have been introducing their own passengers handling charges.
Edinburgh Airport has begun charging £1 for every car and taxi dropping passengers off outside the terminal (which is a lot like every High Street retailer slugging shoppers a pound to walk through the door) and Bristol Airport charges £1 for a tiny transparent bag in which to put small amounts or liquids and gels being taken onboard aircraft.
As TravelMole can testify, using another sort of transparent bag brings a threat of confiscation of the items inside.
