The airline industry is facing its biggest crisis since the September 11, 2001 attacks. On 16th of March, 2020 global airline alliances (oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance) jointly called on governments for support during COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. airlines will receive bailout
And on 27th of March, 2020 President Donald Trump signed $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill and U.S. airlines will get almost $60 billion from that stimulus package. Bill prohibits layoffs, stock buybacks, and dividends.
You don’t need to pay departure tax in Australia as you are paying departure tax in New Zealand in some airports. All fees are included in your tickets, but only now I realize how big these fees are.
In Australia it is not a departure tax. They call it Passenger Movement Charge (PMC). It was renamed as such from middle of1995 and that’s why I couldn’t find much information about it and from July 1, 2012 Australian Goverment increased this charge from $AU47 to $AU55. It is more then double of departure fee in New Zealand. With some exceptions everybody older then 12 years must pay this fee.
When buying online not every airline shows “price breakdown” and this tax can be differently named by different airlines. Scoot airlines names it as “Government Imposed Pax Movement Fee”. Virgin Australia calls it by it’s name – “Passenger Movement Charge”. Other airlines like Qantas shows only total taxes you need to pay.
According to the Tourism and Transport Forum, Australia now has the second-highest departure tax in the developed world (the highest for short-haul routes), with only United Kingdom charging more. With such high Australian dollar exchange rate it seams government don’t want more tourists to come to Australia.
