Same airport, different taxes with different airlines

[Coco]

Please excuse what I have done (I know it sounds very nerdish) but I have been locked in since Christmas Eve!!!  Today I was playing with the Ryanair site to see how much it would cost for relatives to come over in January.  All flights from Stanstead to Dinard free except for taxes.  That sounds good.  By the time I had added on taxes it came to £68, now I know that's still pretty cheap for two people but just thought I'd check out Luton to Paris with Easyjet.  It was more expensive because they weren't offering free flights.  However, their taxes were MUCH lower.

I then thought that in order to do a fair comparison I should see if I could find a test route that both companies fly into.  So, my relatives are now going (they don't know this yet!) from Stanstead to Almeira on 6th January and back on the 9th.  One is going by Ryanair and is going to pay £24 in airport taxes.  The other is going by Easyjet and will pay £9!!!!!  Can anyone explain this????  Are Ryanair pulling a fast one when they offer these so called FREE flights by bunging a bit on the taxes?   They still work out cheapest but I don't like the idea of being told that the only charges are unavoidable ones imposed by the airports and governments when that (or so it appears) is not necessarily so.

Anyone in the know who can satisfy my curiosity on this one?

Now....... what else can I do to amuse myself until the snow thaws [:P]

[Brian]

I agree that this is a very grey area. I recently booked flights from Exeter for myself & my wife next year to a certain European capital city. Flights at £4.09 per person each per leg plus taxes. Total cost with taxes for two return flights c£110.

However checking later on for flights from Bristol with Easyjet (similar timing) to the same destination, the flights offered were £15.00 each leg but with taxes the total cost for two returns comes out at c£83! The Flybe website even adds the following comment ;

"Additional taxes and charges are made on the basic ticket price to cover Airport Departure Tax, Passenger Service Charge, a Security/Insurance & Fuel surcharge. For promotional offers, Flybe may pay a portion of the taxes to offer the lowest possible fares" (My underlining)

Oh yeah! how generous of them.

Brian

[Richardbk]

taxes for the airport are the same ( or should be !). What you are seeing is the differences in fuel surcharges, which are in fact not taxes at all.

regs

 

Richard

[moon]

From my understanding, Easyjet appear to have lower taxes because they are incorporating all or part of the outgoing tax in their fare. The once very cheap fares offered by Easyjet to Paris for example no longer exist because of this trend, although the final total after all taxes is close to previous figures. Ryanair likes to quote cheap come ons but hits you with taxes including their infamous "wheelchair levy". 

Bob