Airlines collected UK airport tax despite exemption: Travel agents
Teenagers may have paid a higher price for travel from the UK for over a year as airlines did not inform agents of a tax exemption.
All passengers departing from airports in the UK pay air passenger duty (APD), which varies according to distance and class of travel. While economy class passengers till the age of 12 are exempted from the duty, the UK authorities extended the exemption to those below the age of 16 from March 2016.
Economy class passengers from London to India are charged £75 and it is included in the ticket price.
The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) has claimed that airlines did not inform them about this. The agents have also demanded refunds for customers.
The issue came to light last month after a customer complained to an agent. Following this, the TAFI raised the issue with airlines.
Air India, Jet Airways, British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic (VA) operate non-stop flights between India and London. A large number of passengers travel on these airlines as well as Emirates and Etihad Airways on this sector.
“There has been no circular from your airline to travel agents informing about this tax abolishment. Neither have any procedures been informed to collect the tax refund for passengers. It is quite clear that mechanisms exist with the global distribution systems used by agents for ticketing to deduct this tax at the time of ticketing. However, no efforts have been made on that front either,” the TAFI said in a letter to airlines.
“Even now some airline websites are not equipped to provide exemption to passengers. Also the airlines are silent on the issue of refund,” said Rajat Bagaria, the TAFI’s joint secretary.
While a passenger can book a ticket through an airline website, travel agents use global distribution systems such as Amadeus, Travelport and Sabre. Ticket prices are preset on these systems and it is an airline’s responsibility to ensure that the correct break-up of fare and taxes is available following any price revision.
Tickets are available in three age categories: Infants (less than two years), children (2-12 years) and adults (above 12 years).
Websites of BA, Emirates and VA have options for booking passengers between the ages of 12 and 15 years if travel is from an UK airport. Jet Airways’ website mentions the tax exemption will be applied if a passenger is between 12 and 15 years of age.
Following the complaint, Air India, Emirates and Amadeus issued circulars to inform agents about the procedure that allows for tax exemption while booking.
In its response to the TAFI, Jet Airways said it had issued a circular in 2016. The airline did not respond to a query from Business Standard.
In its response to the TAFI, BA said since 2016 its systems allowed the exemption at the time of booking and there should ideally be few or no tickets where this tax was charged wrongly. “These changes are in the public domain,” BA said.
A BA spokesperson said customers who had booked tickets on its website would receive automatic refunds upon departure in case of international flights or completion of the final leg of a domestic flight.
“Customers who booked through a travel agent and whose bank statements show their payment was made directly to British Airways will also receive an automatic refund. Customers whose payments were processed by a company other than British Airways will need to apply to their travel agent for their refund,” the spokesperson said in an emailed response.
“We have a separate website for the trade to get all the information and news updates on Virgin Atlantic. The news around the APD exemption was updated last year. Moreover, when our customers book with us, they can select the age for the children and accordingly the website charges the correct amount. We are giving refunds to 1216-year-olds. Customers just need to contact our refunds department,” a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said.
Air India, Emirates, Etihad and IATA did not respond to queries. Amadeus shared its March 2015 blog, providing details of pricing procedures.
A spokesperson for the UK’s treasury department declined to comment on the issue raised by travel agents. “The government is now in a pre-election period and so we are not able to promote current government policy in case it influences the election in some way,” an official spokesperson said.