Ryanair is canceling its eight routes to Budapest, which already indicated after the introduction of the air ticket tax that the extra cost could be flight cancellations and cancellations
- writes Bank360.
Ryanair's reaction to the passenger tax, which it calls idiotic, has arrived: the low-cost airline is canceling its eight Budapest routes, Okosutas.hu noticed.
On Wednesday, these destinations were removed from the schedule, so they will stop the winter schedule change: Bordeaux, Bournemouth, Cologne, Kaunas, Kraków, Lappeenranta, Riga, Turin.
It does not include routes that would have stopped for the winter according to the original plan, such as the very popular summer travel destination Rimini.
The list includes the flights for which Ryanair has been selling tickets for a long time and has now decided not to fly them in the winter. They also thin out on many routes, but this is part of the normal winter schedule, and it is also done elsewhere on the network. The complete closure appears to be a reaction to the extra profits tax, according to the travel portal.
Ryanair has long been opposed to the air ticket tax introduced among the Hungarian extra-profit taxes, officially known as the contribution of the airlines.
This must be collected by the airport ground handling companies. The contribution must be paid for passengers departing from the country (not for transit passengers), reminds Bank360.hu. There are two tariffs for the air ticket tax, effective from July 1. According to the government decree, HUF 3,900 must be paid per passenger if the passenger's final destination is the European Union, Great Britain, Northern Ireland, as well as Albania, Andorra, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland, Serbia and Ukraine. The amount of the contribution is HUF 9,750 per passenger flying to other countries with a final destination.
Already after the introduction of the extra profit tax, Ryanair announced that this extra cost could result in fewer flights and cancellations.
For those bookings made before the announcement of the tax and made after June 30, Ryanair included HUF 3,900 in the price, or customers could cancel the trip. In response to this, on the initiative of Minister of Economic Development Márton Nagy, the Capital City Government Office launched a consumer protection investigation against Ryanair in Hungary.
The result of this was made public by Judit Varga, the Minister of Justice.
According to this, a HUF 300 million consumer protection fine was imposed on Ryanair due to the transfer of the extra profit tax.
The airline considers the penalty unfounded and will take the case to court. It is not yet known on the basis of the specific violation or violations in the consumer protection investigation that resulted in the record-breaking fine being imposed on the airline.
Because of the extra profit tax, Ryanair publicly lashed out at the Hungarian government and its minister, Márton Nagy. Ryanair described the new tax as more than stupid. And his manager, Michael O'Leary, made an idiot of Márton Nagy.
Source: magyarnemzet.hu
Opening image: Photo: NurPhoto via AFP/Oscar Gonzalez
