A mysterious £8.90 tax is being added to all Heathrow flights

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• marcw says:

  9 Feb9 February 10:25

  Now consumers have to pay directly airline costs. Previously we paid it indirectly – now it’s being paid directly by us.
  This has been orchestrated by BOTH the AIRLINES and HEATHROW.

  • ChrisC says:

    9 Feb9 February 10:44

    What do you think the “passenger service fee” was for it wasn’t for the airport costs that aren’t included in the landing fees?

    • marcw says:

      9 Feb9 February 12:48

      Not everything is covered by the pax service fee. Check-in desks? Baggage handling system and storage? are just a few …
      What happens here is that previously yearly contracts with airlines are now power-by-the-hour (=pax) contracts.
      Airport and airlines are very happy about this.

• Steve says:

  9 Feb9 February 10:42

  “The surcharge will, in theory, disappear when passenger volumes return to normal and the backlog of underpayments has been cleared.”
  Yes, I’m sure it will disappear and we won’t be revisiting this when it increases to £10.00 next year and £12.50 in 2023.

  • Ming the Merciless says:

    9 Feb9 February 14:12

    Similar to Income tax, a temporary tax to help through tough times that never gets removed. (Napoleonic wars from memory)

• George K says:

  9 Feb9 February 10:49

  Ripoff Britain. The fee could have been £28.40 and we still wouldn’t be able to do anything about it

  • ChrisC says:

    9 Feb9 February 11:26

    True but at least it’s out in the open and not hidden in the base fare, airline surcharges or the passenger service fee.

    • kitten says:

      9 Feb9 February 13:30

      has the regulator sanctioned this? can it be legally challenged?

      other businesses have lost money too but are not in a position to abuse customers when their business suffers an event their business planning and saving alongside any relevant business interruption insurance, should be what they turn to.

      Given the enormous profits made in this business due to being given a monopoly to collect rent off, this is an abuse of monopoly power by Heathrow.

      They should suffer and deal like other businesses have to and should not be allowed to abuse their monopoly position

      • kitten says:

        9 Feb9 February 13:32

        If they need money to get through this they should turn to their shareholders, restructure, lease out assets etc like other businesses are having to.

        • Dom says:

          10 Feb10 February 00:23

          Yup. This country is a massive scam. And every political party just loves bending over for the shareholders.

• Fenny says:

  9 Feb9 February 11:26

  Good job I have no current plans to fly from LHR. Whether or not it disappears in the future is another matter.

• babyg says:

  9 Feb9 February 11:28

  People could vote with their feet (avoid LHR)… but alas people wont, its either too much of a hassle or it would cost more the £8.90 to get to an alternative airport. Whats galling is the profits they make in the good years, only to have nothing in the coffers to ride out the bad years…

  • kitten says:

    9 Feb9 February 13:35

    exactly. see my comments above. Time the UK stopped the shareholders of UK monopolies they’ve granted taking money in good years then deciding to run bad years on current account that they then abuse their business partners and UK customers to fill.

• David Cohen says:

  9 Feb9 February 14:22

  I guess my question is why is it £8.90? What calculations have gone into coming up with that amount? If the PSC can’t be increased without the CAA’s agreement, surely they’re (even more) pointless that I thought they were if they have no powers to prevent Heathrow adding a further charge.

  Finally, the blurb that Heathrow published about this seems to imply it’s at the airlines’ request. However IAG appear to contradict this.

  It would be good to get some confirmation of exactly who asked for this, and where the funds go.

  • Rob says:

    9 Feb9 February 15:13

    The document does break out fairly well what items are included. What we don’t know is over what period Heathrow is collecting what it is due.

    Does it plan to charge £8.90 for 6 months to recover the underpayments for 2020? Or 12 months? Why not £4.45 for 24 months in that case?

    • TGLoyalty says:

      9 Feb9 February 15:26

      NPV … would mean larger overall cost recovery.

• DavidB says:

  9 Feb9 February 21:23

  Yet another reason to not visit the UK when travel becomes possible again. I’ve boycotted your country since the years it introduced those usurious fees on tickets and refuse to give a single pence to visit my ancestral homeland. (It’s bad enough having to endure the disastrous airport that is LHR when connecting onward as a BAGold.)

  • TGLoyalty says:

    10 Feb10 February 07:24

    Erm you’d pay it on all Heathrow departures including if you were simply flying through on a connection …

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