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As infighting continues regarding an additional airfare fee that helps cover airport renovations, TravelPulse founder and CEO Mark Murphy talked about out-of-control plane ticket taxes and fees during his latest appearance on the Fox News show "Your World With Neil Cavuto."
The example, provided by airlines.org, shows the base cost of the ticket as $237.02, plus an $18 passenger facility charge, a $11.20 federal security charge, a $12 flight segment tax, and a $17.78 federal ticket tax. "It's shocking when you see it," Murphy said. "You're talking about a $300 fare, $71 of that is taxes, more than a fifth of the cost of the ticket. So, for travelers, you're getting hit, and you don't even realize you're getting hit, because the airlines now have to bundle that fare and not break it out, so you just see the final price, you don't realize how much the taxman is hitting you as a traveler."
But travelers can pay up to 17 different government-imposed taxes and fees, which added up to more than $20 billion in 2014. Since 1990, such taxes and fees, paid by airlines as well as passengers has increased by over 400 percent. Just this past July, the TSA security fee for nonstop flights more than doubled to $5.60. And the list of imposed charges goes on.
Murphy sees this relentless taxation as a detriment to the industry as a whole. "You tax the traveler so much, you lose the economic impact of the traveler," he said. "It affects the destinations they're going to, it affects the hotels, it affects the taxis, the restaurants, it has a massive ripple effect."
There is a movement against the rampant taxes and fees in the travel industry, Murphy pointed out, citing Airlines for America as one organization advocating for change. Ultimately, Murphy has to ask, "When does it stop?"
Watch the full segment below:
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