It could get worse. There are many government taxes and fees that airlines pay, that go beyond your typical PFCs, segment tax, 7.5% excise tax, security fees and custom/immigration fees. Examples:
- $0.044 federal excise tax per gallon of jet fuel
- Landing fees
- Airport facility fees (such as renting counter space, gates, etc.)
- Payroll taxes on all their employees paychecks
- Real estate taxes on their corporate headquarters
- Corporate income tax
- etc. etc.
Now obviously these are not per-passenger charges, but they are government taxes and fees nonetheless. And it can be easily argued that these taxes and fees are costs that impact the total cost of the service provided, and therefore can be apportioned to each passenger. And the airlines would do that, so they could show lower fares and more taxes and "apportioned tax recovery".
Too far fetched? Hardly. Car rental companies already do this, with "airport concession fee recovery" or "vehicle licensing cost recovery". These are not taxes, but an alleged pass-through of their cost of paying certain taxes and fees.
Can you imagine if the Gap did this? Shirt $1.99, "payroll taxes recovery" $2.50, "real estate taxes recovery" $1.60, "corporate income tax recovery" $8.25, sales tax $1.15, total $15.49.
I don't doubt the airlines would do this. Think RyanAir, in the days before the EU required "all in" fares.