Difference in Airport Tax Charges

[fozzyo]

After a bit of help in understanding this. Myself and some friends are planning a weekend trip to Amsterdam and i'm shopping around for Air fares.

We would be flying from Birmginham ideally so its pretty much KLM or BMI Baby who now go to Amsterdam from there.

Having had a look at both sites I have a price of £100 for BMI Baby and £128 for KLM, which is fine. What I can't work out is the difference in taxes. KLM have taxes as being a total of £51 and BMI Baby £30.75.

I assumes that the taxes would have been the same regardless of which airline.

Thanks for any help
Foz )

Well, taxes can depend on the flight & the airline anyway.

For APD, if you're in a one-class plane (i.e. Economy all the way through), then a reduced rate applies (this leaflet helps explain). In fact, I'm surprised that APD is "only" £5/£20 (EU/International) for economy and £10/£40 (EU/International) for premium cabins.

Then of course, there's the "Passenger Service Charge" which varies from airport to airport (but both BMI & KLM should be the same on this), and don't forget the "insurance/security charge" that comes in under "taxes" and will vary from airline to airline.

I'm sure you can get to a £20 difference easily with the above, but does anyone know of any other "gotchas" included in the "taxes" line? [?]

Cheers

Michael

[RichardMannion]

That is some difference - where are you getting the fare quotes from chap?

Some have some obscene adminsitration charges, or booking fee's.

Mcuth has pretty much outlined APD for UK, there are some exemptions to APD:

- Infants
- Deportees
- Airline crew on duty within 72 hours
- When connecting between flights with some rules on time (I can detail them if you need)
- Departures are on scheduled small aircraft: Registered at less than 10 tonnes Max Takeoff Weight and/or No more than 20 pax.
- Channel Island (ACI/GCI/JER) are not part of Uk so no APD
- Isle of Man is not part of UK, but does apply an APD (YO) similiar to UK.
- Departures from Higlhalnds and Islnads airports : BEB, BRR, CAL, INV, ILY, KOI, SYY, SDZ, TRE, WIC
- CAA Inspectors

Intersesting irony was that as COncorde was all one class of service, it qualified for the lower rate!

Passenger Service Charges (UB)
These vary from airport to airport, and also in some cases by airline too. For instance for Birmingham:

BHX - INtl Dept £11.10 Domes Dept £6.70
BHX - Intl Dept £10.80 Domes Dept £6.70 (Via BD)

Again there are some rules and exemptions - can detail them if you want.

Other thign to bear in mind that some airlines are passing on a Fuel Surcharge too.

Thanks,
Richard

[fozzyo]

Cool - thanks for that guys!

The prices both came from each companies own website. I can see how it can be easy to make differences in the charges. I should have known they would have thought up ways to make it complicated, there I was thinking it would just be a fairly standard landing / departure tax for flights.

Thanks for the info - much appreciated. )
Foz )

one site i have used in the past is skyscanner for cheap flight's to europe.

Cheers

Phil