The German Departure Tax

Details of the German air transport departure tax (Luftverkehrsteuer or Luftverkehrsabgabe) are now available in a 1 September 2010 media release from the German Government and a legal text (both in German)(see previous post).

The tax, which will have three distance bands, is similar to the air passenger duty currently imposed in the United Kingdom.

A November 2009 study by SEO from the Netherlands of The Implications of the Irish Air Travel Tax commissioned by Aer Lingus, Ryanair and Cityjet suggests that such taxes can be counterproductive.

"Binge flying"

A 27 February 2009 article Aviation - The need for green sky thinking in Ethical Corporation contains a reference to an expression that I have only heard used recently - "binge flying". It quotes this expression being used by Greenpeace UK.

In a 10 May 2007 post, Wordage attributes the phrase to Rough Guides founder, Mark Ellingham, and links to a 6 May 2007 Guardian article Travel: the new tobacco.

Given that some attribute the origins of Ryanair's success to transporting Londoners to visit the pubs of Dublin, Ireland for the weekend, perhaps the expression is appropriate to that kind of flying.

Irish Budget introduces Air Travel Tax

The Irish 2009 Budget announced on 14 October 2008 that an Air Travel Tax would be introduced from 30 March 2009. The general rate applying will be €10 per passenger with a lower rate of €2 for shorter air journeys (those under 300 kms). The tax will be payable by the appropriate airport authority to the Revenue Commissioners in respect of passengers departing from Irish airports. In effect the airport authority will collect the tax from the airlines.

Even before the official announcement, on 13 October 2008 Ryanair was reacting to accurate speculation about the tax and followed up with a further statement on 17 October.

Canada and Ireland conclude "open skies" air services agreement

On 30 April 2007 Canadian Ministers announced that Canada had concluded an "open skies" agreement with Ireland. The new agreement replaces one concluded in 1947 and has immediate effect. This is the third such agreement concluded under Canada's new Blue Sky policy.

Singapore-Ireland "open skies" Air Services Agreement concluded

On 13 December 2006 the Singapore Ministry of Transport announced that Singapore and Ireland had concluded an "open skies" air services agreement. The parallel announcement on the same day by the Irish Minister of Transport, Martin Cullen, is available here.

Singapore now claims to have 17 such "open skies" arrangements. This takes it just ahead of New Zealand in this count.