Plane fare prices not to change despite new airport taxes

The price of air fares will not go up despite the unification of the calculation and collection of airport taxes required by the new European regulations, stated the Director of the Civil Aviation Directorate from the Ministry of Transport, Catalin Radu. 'The calculation method of airport taxes in Romania is transparent because it is governed by international regulations and controlled by the Air Carriers Association.

There are no hidden costs, therefore the price of tickets will not grow' explained Catalin Radu, quoted by Rompres. The European Parliament this week has adopted a legislative report setting up common principles applicable to the calculation of EU airport taxes. Under the new regulations, all EU airports must observe the same norms in the area of mutual information, transparency and collection of airport taxes. The common standards bring passengers the same level of service for the same price and make it possible for airports to manage all their installations and services strictly on criteria of cost-effectiveness.

The new rules apply to airports with over five million passengers per year. An independent authority will check the calculation of airport taxes at a national level. In Romania, it may be either the Ministry of Transport or the Civil Aviation Authority, said Catalin Radu. However, for the time being, in Romania there are no airports with such a large traffic.

The Bucharest - Otopeni International Airport and the Airport in Timisoara may have to comply with the new rules at some point in the future. The Bucharest - Otopeni Airport in 2007 reported a traffic of 4.5 M passengers but it expects to have over five million this year.

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