The general rate applying will be €10 per passenger with a lower rate of €2 for shorter air journeys (those under 300 kms) and it will apply from the 30th of March 2009. This new airport travel tax will have a significant impact on families in Ireland who are already facing additional costs imposed by airlines and tour operators. A family of four travelling to any location over 300 km away will now have to pay at €40.00 in this new tax.

There is also likely to be confusion about which rate will apply as it seems that some UK airports such as Manchester or Newquay will qualify for the reduced tax of €2 but others will not. It will all come down to where you are going and from which airport and this is likely to lead to inequality and affect regional airports more significantly. For example it seems that a family travelling from Shannon to Manchester will have to pay €10 per person but if they travelled from Dublin they would only have to pay €2 each.

This is on top of all of the additional charges all of which have been increased significantly this year by airlines and tour operators. These charges seem endless and include taxes of up to €75 per person, fuel surcharges of between €150 and €220 per person on long haul, seat reservation charges of between €3 and €15 per person , baggage charges of between € 24-€36 per person (more if you forget to reserve them online), a handling fee of €10.00 per person and the sneaky “we will include our own travel insurance unless you forget to exclude it” cost of up to €21.00 per person. Now a family of four could now end up paying up to €40.00 extra in this new airport travel tax. This is on top of up to €121 per person or €484 for the family and a massive €271 per person or €1084 for the family on a long haul flight.

The air travel tax will not apply to

- passengers under two years
- disabled passengers and assisting persons
- aircraft with less than 20 passenger seats-so if you have a private jet you are in the clear
- transit passengers
- members of the crew
- air services to and from Irish offshore islands
- aircraft departing airports that in the previous calendar year had less than 10,000 departing passengers.

If it was clear that this money was to be ring fenced and used to improve our airport facilities and in particular the family friendly facilities in the national airports there may be some comfort for families but this is not the case.

You will find lots of family friendly travel tips and advice in our research and advice section to help you book the right family holiday. Check out also the experiences of other parents and travellers in our parents forum and add your own experiences as we are a great believer in real parent's experiences as the best measure of whether somewhere will suit you for your family holiday. 

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