Ryanair CEO: the Hungarian departure tax is stupid and a robbery
The CEO of Irish airline Ryanair strongly condemns the departure tax imposed by the Hungarian government on airlines.
Ryanair has condemned the Hungarian departure tax on airlines. In a recent, strongly-worded statement, they called on Minister of Economic Development Márton Nagy to explain why airlines that are losing money due to the Coronavirus and Ukraine should be hit with an excess profit tax.
The questions
As we can read in the article of Portfolio, according to the statement, the low-cost airline is seeking answers to the following questions from Márton Nagy:
The airlines are being burdened with the new tax to protect Hungarian families, while the sector is suffering record losses due to the Coronavirus pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war.
- Why should Hungarian families and travellers have to pay higher ticket prices when the Hungarian airline industry has been suffering for two years because of Covid and the war in Ukraine?
- How does the tax on airlines help Hungarian families?
The strong-worded statement
According to the Ryanair statement,
“this special tax is not a departure tax, but a highway robbery by a government that is completely out of touch with reality.
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While European governments are cutting taxes on aviation to help traffic recovery, tourism and the job market after the pandemic, Hungary is imposing taxes on loss-making airlines such as Wizz Air and Ryanair, further undermining the competitiveness of Hungarian aviation and tourism, according to Portfolio.
Consumer protection investigation
As hvg.hu writes, Ryanair also mentions the consumer protection investigation that was ordered by the Hungarian government after it was discovered that the aviation company was passing on the extra charge imposed on passengers travelling from Budapest (HUF 3,900 [EUR 9.79] for European routes operated by Ryanair) to those who bought tickets before the tax was announced.
They write they “welcome the consumer protection investigation and call on the Budapest Government Office to extend its investigation to how the Hungarian government can impose a departure tax on a loss-making industry”.
“Perhaps Minister Nagy can explain why this idiotic tax is being imposed on the loss-making airline industry,”
the statement says.
The Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary, even offered to send Martin Nagy a book titled “Economics for Beginners” (referring to a series of books).
Source: Portfolio.hu, hvg.hu