Article from BTNews 15 FEBRUARY 2021
Heathrow passenger charges
Unheralded Heathrow Airport raised its passenger taxes by £8.90 on Saturday 6 February.
In a statement the airport put its case without specifically mentioning the pandemic, the underlying cause of its loss of revenue.
“Heathrow provides key airport services like the baggage system, colleague car parks, airline check-in desks and utilities for our partners to use. The fee to use these services is calculated purely to cover the cost of providing them – Heathrow makes absolutely zero profit from these services. To ensure this remains the case, the fee is closely monitored by the CAA, as well as being scrutinised and agreed with airport users annually – as was the case with this year's charge. The cost per passenger to cover these services naturally fluctuates depending on the number of passengers using the airport.”
The charge has been passed on to airline customers. This is a typical British Airways add-on to the airline's ticket price for a return trip to Paris. The actual fare shown on the BA website includes this charge.
www.heathrow.com
www.ba.com
| Air Passenger Duty – United Kingdom | £13.00 |
| R1CA | £ 8.90 |
| Passenger Service Charge – United Kingdom | £17.77 |
| Civil Aviation Tax | £ 4.10 |
| Airport Tax | £10.30 |
| Solidarity Tax For France And French Overseas | £ 1.00 |
| Infrastructure Development Tax – France | £ 1.30 |
| Passenger Service Charge (International) – France | £11.50 |
| Total | £67.87 |
| Total Fees for a return flight | |
| (Economy both ways) | |
| Edinburgh | £ 62.98 |
|
New York |
£326.62 |
OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)
All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum
David Starkie, London
Yes, clarification would be welcome. The charge as described sounds like a cost-plus exercise; not a good idea. And to much use of word taxes where it is a charge?
Malcolm Ginsberg, United Kingdom
Chris. As much as I would like to explain in more detail I cannot. They are off the BA booking site. Please ask them. The press office does read BTN and might respond.
Chris Pocock, UK, Uxbridge
Malcom, could you clarify these figures? Does the EDI total mean that the Scottish airport makes a charge of £8.91 that is not shown above? (62.98 minus the total 54.07 that you do show above). I don't understand the New York total either. And is "RC1A" that additional charge that HAL just imposed? If so, which line shows what they previously charged? £17.77? £10.30?