The £25 in tax is misleading. £10 is Government Tax (APD - Air Passenger Duty) and the remaining £15 is PSC - Passenger Service Charge. This is the passenger handling fee levied by the airport on the airline. Until about a year ago this was not shown separately but included in the price of the ticket. In the interests of competition the rules were changed to allow the airlines to show what the charge the airport operators were making.

The airlines saw this as an opportunity to make more money. Instead of reducing the base ticket cost and showing the APD & PSC charges, the airlines kept the base price the same and then added both charges on top. Nice quiet £15 per ticket increase!

They even had the cheek to hit award tickets. Previously all you had to pay was the APD. Now they charge you APD & PSC.

[This message has been edited by Gaza (edited 06-06-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Gaza (edited 06-07-2000).]