In an interview with VRT News’ weekday evening current affairs programme ‘Terzake’ the Commercial Director of the Irish airline Ryanair explained the reasoning behind Ryanair’s decision to scale down its operation in Belgium from next winter.
Mr McGuinness told ‘Terzake’ that "Belgium is closed for business”. Ryanair cites the planned increase in air passenger tax as the reason for its decision. He added that the Federal Government had failed to reflect sufficiently about the consequences of its decision to increase air passenger tax to 10 euro/passenger from 2027.
Governments in other countries have scrapped their air passenger tax and Mr McGuinness says that what Belgium’s Federal Government is doing is completely against the trend elsewhere in Europe. Ryanair that the Federal Government with revoke its decision to increase the tax.
Air passenger tax higher in neighbouring countries
Although Ryanair's says that its measures are a consequence of the planned increase in air passenger tax, the University of Antwerp aviation economist Wouter Dewulf the increase will not make a significant difference to passenger numbers.
Professor Dewulf told VRT News that “Consumers will have to pay an extra 5 to 6 euro, which is not that much. Ryanair tries to attract customers with a low base fare of 25 to 30 euros, so that 5 to 6 euro is not a big deal” “That is one of the reasons why Ryanair is so vehemently opposed to this.”
“A 10-euro per passenger levy is still much lower than in our neighbouring countries. The Netherlands charges 30 euro, Germany 20 euro and France also charges a more”.