Co-workers of my husband had to pay an airport tax coming back to the US from CDG recently. It was the equivalent of about 40E for coach and 80E for first -- no credit cards accepted.

Does anyone have more definitive information? Have any other major airports recently instituted this as well?

The Netherlands is introducing a Carbon tax on flights in July. That should be incorporated into the tickets, but if you have already booked it may not be, in which case it will be payable at check in.
Maybe France have introduced something similar?

Haven't heard anything about it and I check several websites.

There's nothing in google or on the CDG website

In any case it's normally included in the ticket price

Can you give any more details about where and when this was collected

They weren't by any chance on Delta frequent flyer tickets were they?


(Delta seems to have issues with tax computations at atimes and you wind up paying later)

Hi L,

Airport taxes have been added onto the ticket price for years.

Don;t know why they would have had to pay at CDG.

We need more info.

The co-worker of my husband's was booked on a Continental flight back to the U.S. He was told that the airport tax was approximately 40E, but he got upgraded to first, so he paid nearly 80E at the airport. As I said, he was not allowed to use his credit card. His return was very recent. These are all airline people, so they travel often, but this tax was new to them. We've just discussed that we just need to be prepared with more euros on the way out of town, but I was hoping to get more details here.

I'm as puzzled as everybody else, but one thing intrigues me: why would a person travelling first class be expected to pay more for the use of the airport?

With the airlines I use (mostly European short-haul) a large proportion of what is casually referred to as tax goes neither to the government nor to the airport.

There is a solidarity tax out of France, which is 4€ for a flight out of the EU and 40€ for a flight out of the EU in anything other than basic economy class. They use that wording to prevent airlines from getting out of paying the tax by naming a class "deluxe economy" or something like that.

Anyway, if you are upgraded, the tax must by paid by the airline no matter what, so I guess some airlines are immediately collecting it from the passenger.

The money is used for medical assistance in Africa.

(There is also a solidarity tax on domestic and EU flights, but it is lower.)

I meant to say 4€ in economy class, of course, automatically in the ticket price.

The only other country that currently applies this tax besides France is Chile, but the following countries have agreed to do so in principle:

Brazil, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Jordan, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Norway.

That's interesting, kerouac. Thanks for the information.

What a strange idea: taxing the rich to assist the poor.

We are flying Continental in june back to US from CDG. Just to clarify, does this mean we need to have 40Euros each in cash to return in our coach seats? Thanks.

We have had to pay an airport tax when we were flying on our daughter's CO employee tickets. The answer is "they are all airline people". They are flying standby/free so have to pay the tax.

And I'll add, it is a small price to pay for flying first class! They are on a discounted/free ticket. This is not the regular purchased ticket where the taxes are included. Since you fly standby when on an employee ticket, you never know if and when you may get to leave so the taxes are collected at the time of departure.

Girlonthego, if you are flying in coach, the solidarity tax is 4€ and should already be on the ticket.

Of course between now and June, it is like that the fuel surcharge will have doubled and that they will want to collect it.

For those who know how to decipher the small print on their ticket details, the code for the solidarity tax is IZ. The code for the fuel surcharge (set individually by each airline) is YR.
For a flight out of France, there would also be the code FR used one or twice, depending on whether they have added the two airport taxes together or not, plus another tax which is coded QX. That makes a total of 5 different taxes being charged for leaving France. Any other taxes (assuming you have a round trip ticket) are charged from the other direction of your trip.

Unfortunately, you often will not have the full detail of all of the taxes, because the ticketing systems were created to display a maximum of three different taxes. If you only see 3 taxes on your ticket, the 3rd tax is usually coded XT, which means "mixed taxes" that didn't fit on the ticket.

Ha ha, who ever thought a plane ticket was confusing?

We are flying on frequent flyer points, but paid about 72 USD each in taxes. I checked the ticket taxes and it says the FR tax and the QX tax and also something CXTXA whatever that is. I see no surcharge, (we booked these last August) and none of the solidarity tax either. So, I am guessing we will need some money to leave France? Thanks Kerouac

Maybe a little but not the amount of the initial question. You've paid the major taxes.

girlonthego,
Was this a OnePass award? If so, you won't need to pay anything as long as you remain in coach. CO doesn't charge fuel surcharges on award tickets. It's primarily non-US frequent flyer programs that do.

I have never heard of Continental charging people at CDG for taxes. Your husbands' co-workers may want to post on the Continental forum Flyertalk.com for information.

And how was that person upgraded? With miles, money, op-uped, or what? Need more information.