Little cheer for French air fare tax

A new tax on air fares imposed by the French government to raise money for overseas aid has found little support in the UK trade.

The tax, which comes in on July 1, will be charged on all outbound flights from France and range from €1 for European economy fares to €40 for first-class long-haul flights.

The UK Government has said it will not copy the French initiative, but is considering siphoning some air passenger duty revenue into a separate ‘development aid’ fund.

Advantage business travel director Norman Gage said: “This is yet another example of agents being forced to act as unpaid tax collectors.”

Midconsort Travel chief executive Charles Eftichiou said he fears the timing of the tax will jeopardise the campaign for a consumer-paid levy to fund financial protection. “We are trying to convince our Government to introduce a simple levy to provide consumer protection and this has come at exactly the same time,” he said.

Triton Travel Group director John McEwan said, although he supported the idea of raising funds for aid projects, said he “is not convinced it should be mandated”.

No-frills airline Ryanair said it opposes the new tax because it may slow demand, despite the fact the carrier may benefit by retaining the taxes of no-show passengers.

“If a passenger can’t fly, we’d hang on to the taxes and charges ourselves,” said a Ryanair spokesman. “There are already plenty of charges we don’t refund.”