CBC: Why are airlines getting millions from a fee to upgrade airports?

[200hr Wonder]

Why are airlines getting millions from a fee to upgrade airports?

More from our favorite "passenger rights advocate". Do they think could collecting and accounting for all those fees is free? Seems reasonable to pay for that service.

[mato]

4 to 7 percent is quite significant... I would guess that it does not cost nearly that much to account and manage the process of airport fees.

Reminds me of renting a car in the states where I accidentally go on to a toll highway, later I get charged 15 usd 3 times to process the 50 cent charge for using the highway a couple times.

Of course this is not that extreme but I call bs on this charge. And they should offer you another method to pay the airport if you want to avoid their fees. Pay the airport directly if you like that sounds fair.

Edit finger trouble with my phone

[PostmasterGeneral]

Gabor strikes again....

[200hr Wonder]

4 to 7 percent is quite significant... I would guess that it does not cost nearly that much to account and manage the process of airport fees.

Reminds me of renting a car in the states where I accidentally go on to a toll highway, later I get charged 15 usd 3 times to process the 50 cent charge for using the highway a couple times.

Of course this is not that extreme but I call bs on this charge. And they should offer you another method to pay the airport if you want to avoid their fees. Pay the airport directly if you like that sounds fair.

Edit finger trouble with my phone

Don't forget that you pay by credit card when you pay the AIF so the credit card company gets and amount starting at 1.5% and goes up from there depending on the card. Then there are charge backs, exchange etc. As the article stats it is revenu neutral and I can belive that. It is why YYZ is a lower amount than a smaller airport like YEG because things like charge backs are spread across a larger base.

[200hr Wonder]

Gabor strikes again....

Can we start a petition to have every airline in Canada ban him for life? Lord knows he would never be happy even if his flight leaves on time arrives on time to the minute. He would find something. Save them all a huge hassle.

[Commonwealth]

Airport improvement fees can translate into bad custom relations for airlines in my opinion. People pay x amount of dollars to the airline they are flying, but some of that doesn't go to the airline. I realise it is easier to pay once, but imagine a world where an airline collected only it's fare plus GST and customers had to pay again for the airport improvement fees. I feel this would eliminate the perception that airlines are charging exorbant amounts.

[JasonE]

Don't forget that you pay by credit card when you pay the AIF so the credit card company gets and amount starting at 1.5% and goes up from there depending on the card. Then there are charge backs, exchange etc. As the article stats it is revenu neutral and I can belive that. It is why YYZ is a lower amount than a smaller airport like YEG because things like charge backs are spread across a larger base.

I tend to agree with this having dealt with large volumes of C.C. business. You know those 2% cashback cards - guess who pays the 2%? 4% would be pretty close to revenue neutral as a whole.

[Black_Tusk]

Gabor really needs to go get a real job. One could also look into how much money he makes as a "rights advocate?" No one does anything for free.

[Longtimer]

The facts: in the beginning YYC told the airlines we do not want to collect this fee (some airports had attempted to do so but found the cost of doing so to be prohibitive) , either you collect the fee for us or we will simply add the $$$ onto your current fees. A major carrior was in a positon to eat the fees and force the other operators to add the additonal cost onto their base fares. A group got together and said we will collect the fees on your behalf but we need to recover the cost of doing so. So a bargain was struck that all airlines would collect the fees subject to a handling charge. IATA was lobbied and asked to creat a code that would allow the AIF to be recorded on the ticket as a single item, this would allow the airlines to collect their handling fee and allow the airports to identify their additional revenue through the IATA clearing house. Of course the AIF was to be a short term item, but here we are some 15 plus years later and the fee is still being charged by the airports. So folks no matter how the fee is charged, you the passenger will pay for it and the various airports will have the money to play with. ..