Sydney airport charge infuriates travel agents

By JOSIE CLARKE

New airport charges which add $42 to the cost of a return ticket could discourage New Zealanders from flying to Sydney, say travel agents.

From today, travellers booking tickets to fly through Sydney airport will pay a passenger services charge of $A35.10 ($42) on return tickets or $A17.55 ($21) on one-way fares.

The fee, combined with the existing international departure tax of $A38 and a Sydney noise-abatement levy of $A3.40, brings the total extra charges to at least $90 a return ticket.

Most agents found out about the charge on Friday, giving them little time to warn customers.

Flight Centre marketing director Graeme Moore said the company was unhappy with the charge. "From our perspective, it's just another tax being levied on the poor travelling public."

The charge would probably encourage travellers, particularly families, to consider alternative destinations, he said.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported at the weekend that Sydney airport made a $43 million profit, according to the corporation's annual report.

The Atlantic Pacific Business Travel managing director, Neil Tolich, said airports' monopolistic behaviour was frustrating.

"Airport charges are put up quite surreptitiously and no one focuses on them like they would if an airfare was put up $50.

In the past two months fares to Sydney for those who could not book more than seven days in advance, typically corporate travellers, had increased to between $799 and $1000.

Auckland travel agent Gerard Murphy said the fee would upset his clients, now asked to pay more than $90 as well as the $22 New Zealand departure tax on top of the price of their ticket.

He hoped that New Zealand airports would not try to introduce the charge.

"Not that $20 or $30 would put overseas travellers off, but it does all add up."

Auckland Airport chief executive John Goulter said he was not aware of any plans to adopt a similar charge.

Passengers in transit who do not clear Customs and children under 2 years old will be exempt from the new charge.

Sydney Airport Corporation said the charge was not new, or a tax, but the fee paid by airlines to the airport to cover runway charges, terminal charges, anti-terrorist measures and security screening.

It was up to individual airlines to decide whether they would charge passengers extra.

But Air New Zealand spokeswoman Rosie Flay said the charge had been imposed by Sydney airport, not the airline.