Ryanair cuts routes from Hungary due to new airline tax

Record ID: 1688638

  • Title: Ryanair cuts routes from Hungary due to new airline tax
  • Date: 13th September 2022
  • Summary: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (AUGUST 18, 2022) (REUTERS) PASSENGERS IN DEPARTURE AREA VARIOUS OF PASSENGERS BY DEPARTURES SCREENS RYANAIR PLANE TAKING OFF PLANE IN AIR
  • Embargoed: 27th September 2022 15:34
  • Keywords: Michael O'Leary Ryanair Airlines Ryanair in Hungary cancelled routes travel tax
  • Location: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
  • City: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
  • Country: Hungary
  • Topics: Company News Markets,Europe,Economic Events
  • Reuters ID: LVA003502513092022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Budget airline Ryanair announced on Tuesday (September 13) that it will cancel eight routes out of Budapest over windfall taxes imposed on airlines by the Hungarian government.
    Ahead of the meeting with media in Budapest Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary posed for pictures holding a placard reading: "Scrap 'excess profits' tax on loss-making airlines"
    Speaking to journalists O'Leary said Ryanair would like to grow business in Hungary, but it "can’t do so when Hungary insists on levying an access profit tax on an industry that has made record losses over the last two years," he said.
    Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government in May announced the special tax targeting "extra profits" earned by major banks, energy companies and other firms, aiming to plug budget holes created by a spending spree that helped him gain re-election in April.
    The new levy on the airline industry involves a tax worth 10 to 25 euros per passenger departing Hungary from July.
    Ryanair has previously called on Orban's government to scrap the new tax, saying the measure would damage Hungarian tourism and the economy.
    On Wednesday O'Leary called the tax “idiotic and stupid”, adding that applying "an excess profits tax" on what he called a loss-making industry was inexplicable and only succeeded in making flying to and from Hungary more expensive and less competitive compared to other Central European airports.
    Ryanair said earlier this month that it would appeal against a 300 million forints ($726,000) fine following a consumer protection investigation.
    O'Leary said that under European law, the Hungarian government did not have the power to tell airlines not to pass tax on customers.
    (Production: Krisztina Fenyo, Malgorzata Wojtunik)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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