Sidley

Any discussion about this surtax of 40.00 Eu (maximum), ie trans atlantic, to assist in funding world health? What a shocker, and how do we know about the integrity of the dispersal of $$$?

Sidley

Dukey

The same way you &quot;know&quot; about the funds disp[ersal in <b>any</b> so-called charity or whatever.

What happens to all those coins the airlines collect at the end of westbound transatlantic flights?

Think positive.

ipod_robbie

Won't they lose 2-3% or more converting &euro; to $. What a waste. Why don't they just disperse &euro;?

jody

Is this what you're talking about? It's not just France and it's not trans-Atlantic, YET

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...256590,00.html

UreOSceptic

Jody's confusing two quite separate propsals, and two quite separate institutions.

The French Republic has announced that as from July 1 2006, air travel out of France will be subject to a levy to fund UNITAID. Since few Frenchpeople ever travel, this is an ingenious idea by Jacques Chirac to get foreigners to pay for a stunt that makes him look a visionary.

Inexplicably, M Chirac's concern with the health of the world's poorest countries does not extend to ending France's greatest stunt: the device by which the taxpayers of Britain, Germany, Sweden and Holland subsidise French farmers so they can dump crops on world markets, destroying the livelihoods of the poorest people in the world. M Chirac repeatedly insists this device is essential to maintaining the nature of France. All decent-minded people insist that if that's the case, the sooner the French are expelled from the EU the better.

Quite separately, the European &quot;Parliament&quot; (a different French stunt, in which Europe's taxpayers pay a bunch of political has beens to sit around talking, frequently in France. Mercifully, we give them virtualy no powers) has discussed making this stunt mandatory across the EU.

Whatever the talking shop has said, though, it's the EU's governments that will decide. Since they include nations a great deal less insular than the French, debate in the Council of Ministers is likely to be great deal less one-sided.

jody

2 different proposals! I guess if they all are approved that's the end of cheap fares for intra-Europe flights. 1&pound;for the ticket and 80&pound; tax!

UreOSceptic

The European Parliament didn't seriously discuss the level of tax. The reference to &pound;20 per flight comes from an anti-air travel lobbying group: it's the minimum they want to see.

France's UNITAID scheme, incidentally, charges &euro;1 per European flight. That's less than most of the imaginative extras Ryanair already invents to pad the price of their flights today.

Sue_xx_yy

So, this government is now not just encouraging me as to what charities I should or should not support, they are demanding the money. This isn't charity, it's extortion.

Even if the objective is worthwhile, why should I accept the French government's say-so that UNITAID is the best agency equipped to deal with the objective? If this is like most foreign aid projects, then we would do better to seek ways to directly fund smaller projects with more humble ambitions. For example, poverty-fighting projects that consist of making small loans directly to African women to set up small businesses) have succeeded where glamourous, photograph-the-president making-a-cheque style projects have not.

Gee, guess I sound kinda cynical about the whole thing, don't I?

Sue_xx_yy

By the way, it may be true that this tax is modest in size relative to Ryanair's price pads, and thus arguably affordable by most air passengers. However, arguments like these address the relative affordability of the tax, they do not address the wisdom of it. Affordability to the payee says nothing about the efficiency or efficacy of the tax in meeting the alleged objective.

UreOSceptic

I agree. Any foreign aid tax inspired by the French government is fundamentally hypocritical.

But it's silly to pronounce this the end of cheap travel. There's a well-orchestrated campaign in Europe that IS lobbying against cheap air travel. But &euro;1 a journey isn't going to stop all those stag weekends in Riga.

walkinaround

&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;
So, this government is now not just encouraging me as to what charities I should or should not support, they are demanding the money. This isn't charity, it's extortion.
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;

i do agree with you. however, it is a tax and should be seen as such. we all moan about taxes but we don't usually demand of ourselves to agree with the use (or misuse) of the tax money that we pay whilst on holiday.

if we did think about the use of our tax money, i think we could think of some more sinister examples than this. and we could very well exclude visiting many countries around the world on the grounds that we don't want to support state sponsored oppression, wars that we don't agree with, etc.

WallyKringen

It is not helpful to the readers of this forum to be making unsubstantiated and hairbrained statements like the OP's about the &euro;40 surtax, as if it were a fact. And to lay blame at the feet of the French politicians? How low can this &quot;discourse&quot; go - doesn't anybody read and comprehend before mouthing off?

This is irresponsible rumour-mongering.

WK

walkinaround

wally, this is all over the news. i read about it long before i saw this thread. hairbrained??? you should check your news before you make these kinds of statements. otherwise you just look silly and poorly informed.

blh

I was wondering why my recently bought tickets from DFW to CDG had such high fees and taxes. The trip over had $5 in fees - the return had $55.10. For two - thus a total of $120.20 for the two of us. I've never had fees anywhere close to this before. Guess I won't stay home - but it does irritate the heck out of me. The cost of the euro is high enough right now without adding insult to injury.

JP

blh, the high taxes &amp; fees on flights to the U.S. are mostly for U.S. Customs &amp; Immigration.

blh

They must have really increased recently - have never paid more than $25 in taxes and fees on a roundtrip ticket to Europe. ??????

WallyKringen

This thread reads like a transcript of talk radio - all hot air and no substance. And a poster justifies it by saying &quot;it's been all over the news&quot;.

Where?

Question: Who can cite a news item - not conjecture about future government decisions but a factual report - that states from authoritative sources that the following has been instituted and is in force:

[Quoting OP] &quot;this surtax of 40.00 Eu (maximum), ie trans atlantic, to assist in funding world health?&quot;

Where is it?

If it is proven fact and can be documented, I'll admit to being &quot;poorly informed&quot; as per earlier poster.

If it isn't, once again this Frommers board looks like a babblers convention.

So - walkinaround - where is the authority?

WK

LoveItaly

Uh Wally, this is the Fodors Board not the Frommers Board.

kerouac

It is 4 euros in economy class and 40 euros in business and first class. 1 euro for domestic flights.

kerouac

France and Chile are the only 2 countries that have implemented the tax so far, out of 75 or so countries who have plans to do so. In Europe, the UK and Germany should be starting soon.