by Peggy Tee

Created on: August 06, 2011   Last Updated: August 08, 2011

Airport tax is a term that can mean a variety of different things and are, confusingly, often called by different names such as Airport Improvement Fee, Embarkation Fee, Passenger Service Charge, Airport Departure Tax or Air Passenger Duty. All of these levies are a form of airport tax. They are sometimes included in ticket prices, but in some cases you may be required to pay them when you arrive in or depart from an airport.

An airport tax is an additional charge that departing and connecting passengers must pay to an airport and can be levied by a government or airport corporation, often to fund expansion projects or upgrades. IATA defines a tax as an “impost for raising revenue for the general treasury and which will be used for general public purposes,” while a charge is raised for “specific aviation-related facilities or services.”

As of October 2010, FareCompare.com notes that taxes and fees for international flights leaving from American airports are around $60. Fares differ for direct and transit flights. Passengers on domestic flights within the United States are charged $4.50 each time they board a plane, an airport tax levied under the federal Passenger Facility Charge Program to fund security, capacity or safety projects. In order to reduce your airport tax while traveling, you need to consider a few different factors.

Choose your airports wisely

To avoid paying excessive airport taxes, you need to consider your itinerary and the places you want to visit, then plan which airports you want to land in. If you know which airports charge a tax, you can reroute your planned itinerary to avoid them.

Airport taxes vary widely. In order to lower your exposure to airport taxes, you should consider where you need to fly into and choose airports that have lower taxes. Any savings in airport taxes need to be considered against other factors such as flight costs, but all other factors being equal, regional airports tend to have lower taxes than larger hubs.

Airports that charge a tax include, but are not limited to:

Buenos Aires, Argentina Lima, Peru Bali, Indonesia Jakarta, Indonesia Norwich, United Kingdom Newquay, United Kingdom Paris, France

IATA, the International Aviation Transport Authority, publishes a report which lists all taxes for international and domestic flights departing from global airports.

Take a detour

Savvy travelers are avoiding high airport taxes by detouring to a cheaper airport, according to the Telegraph. Some

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