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Just how much tax is in your ticket?

How much of your fare goes for taxes and airport fees?     Photo: Alexander Nieswandt / Wikimedia

 

If you've been vexed by all the charges the airlines add on top of your ticket for baggage, changes, seat choices and just plain breathing, maybe you shouldn't read Bill McGee's analysis in USA Today of how much tax you're paying as part of the ticket price itself.

 

His article earlier this month pointed out that the taxes go to support a bewildering assortment of government and quasi-government agencies and services, including Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs, Animal and Plant Inspection Service and the National Transportation Safety Board—not to mention all the towns, cities and other agencies that actually operate the airports.

 

Among the taxes are a 7.5% domestic passenger ticket tax, a separate $4 flight segment tax; for international flights there's a $17.70 fee for arriving or departing, plus a $5.60 September 11th fee each way.

 

And that's before the $4.50 "passenger facility charge" that goes to airports operated by public authorities. In recent months, the airports have asked for an increase, and the fee-rich airlines have been accusing them of greed and wanting to gouge passengers. Irony, no?

 

To read all of Bill McGee's analysis, click HERE

The best part of every trip is realizing that it has upset your expectations

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Originally Posted by Ron B.:

My recent, free Air France ticket - LA to Paris to Barcelona and then Venice to Paris to LA the tax was $577.97.

That's a lot of travel, Ron, but it certainly makes one relook at the definition of "free". 

Twitter: @DrFumblefinger

"We do not take a trip, a trip takes us".  John Steinbeck, from Travels with Charlie

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