Three of us flying from Atlanta to Madrid, and the back from Paris to Atlanta next summer.

Airline cost w/o fees and taxes: $3657
fees and taxes $1734
total $5391
This means fees and taxes are 47% of the cost w/o fees/taxes.

It is hard to believe that fees/taxes are this high. Is this correct?
Is there anything I can do (different arrangements,etc..) to reduce these fees/costs?
Thank you for any help

The fees for flying into/out of some airports are much higher than others, London LHR and Paris CDG, for example. You could look into using other airports. That's what some low-cost airlines do. Sometimes convenience has a monetary value too, though.

Personally fly RT ATL LON on any airline but BA.com

they are horrible with bogus fuel surcharges and extra fees.

cheapoair.com farecompare.com2 good comp sites

then easyjet.com or ryaniair.com or other econos

skyscanner.net always do thissave hundreds rarely

over a thousand.

1 month ago my wife and I got 2 AAdvantage credit cards

with aa.com 40000 miles each booked our flights with those

ATL PAR RT aa.com booked our flights closedthe cards saved

$2K might look at something like that you have time.

Good luck...

Without telling us the carriers, connection points, fare classes and dates, it's quite impossible to comment except to say how very sorry we are for you.

Part of the fees is something called "Fuel Surcharge". It's simply part of the fare charged by the airline. Not taxes or airport or authority fees.

BTW, high taxes is nothing unusual. Have you tried renting a car at many airports in the US?