The security fee the federal government charges air travellers is set to rise by a third in the 2023 Budget.. airplane-canada .“Budget 2023 proposes to increase the Air Travellers Security Charge rates by 33%,” cabinet wrote in its budget document A Made in Canada Plan..Security charges on domestic round-trip tickets will increase from $15 to $20. Mandatory charges on international flights will rise from $26 to $34..Higher rates take effect in May. Revenues were estimated at $313 million next year..The fee was introduced in 2002 on a claim of cost recovery to offset the expense of tighter security after the 9/11 terrorist attacks..According to Blacklock’s Reporter, figures show the department of Transport instead turned a profit on the fee, 8% on average..Unions and airport operators have called the fee unfair..“This country puts all the costs on users and a little bit more so,” Daniel-Robert Gooch, then-president of the Canadian Airports Council, earlier testified at hearings of the Senate Transport committee..“One of the challenges we’ve had is there is not a lot of transparency around the money,” said Gooch..“Sometimes we are talking with individuals in the government who don’t know the data between what is collected and what is spent.”.The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), in 2014 committee hearings, said travellers never received the service they paid for..“This is a tax on the flying public,” said Dave Ritchie, vice president of IAMAW.. Calgary airport .“They are paying for a service and unfortunately, they are not getting it in a time frame they should be.”.The 33% fee increase follows a disastrous drop in revenues for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, the federal agency mandated to run security screening at 89 airports nationwide..“Passenger volumes have decreased drastically,” management earlier wrote in a Summary of the 2022-23 Corporate Plan..“Consequently, the civil aviation security screening landscape has changed significantly and will likely continue to be fluid for some time.”.The Authority in 2021 required a $291.7 million pandemic bailout in addition to its $567.8 million base funding, a total of $859.5 million..Passenger volumes and related fee collections fell 89%..“The civil aviation industry struggled with significantly lower passenger volumes as a result of the pandemic,” said the Corporate Plan..The Authority counted seven million passengers who went through X-ray scanners in 2021 compared to 43.5 million estimated in 2022 and more than 58 million forecast in 2023.
The security fee the federal government charges air travellers is set to rise by a third in the 2023 Budget.. airplane-canada .“Budget 2023 proposes to increase the Air Travellers Security Charge rates by 33%,” cabinet wrote in its budget document A Made in Canada Plan..Security charges on domestic round-trip tickets will increase from $15 to $20. Mandatory charges on international flights will rise from $26 to $34..Higher rates take effect in May. Revenues were estimated at $313 million next year..The fee was introduced in 2002 on a claim of cost recovery to offset the expense of tighter security after the 9/11 terrorist attacks..According to Blacklock’s Reporter, figures show the department of Transport instead turned a profit on the fee, 8% on average..Unions and airport operators have called the fee unfair..“This country puts all the costs on users and a little bit more so,” Daniel-Robert Gooch, then-president of the Canadian Airports Council, earlier testified at hearings of the Senate Transport committee..“One of the challenges we’ve had is there is not a lot of transparency around the money,” said Gooch..“Sometimes we are talking with individuals in the government who don’t know the data between what is collected and what is spent.”.The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), in 2014 committee hearings, said travellers never received the service they paid for..“This is a tax on the flying public,” said Dave Ritchie, vice president of IAMAW.. Calgary airport .“They are paying for a service and unfortunately, they are not getting it in a time frame they should be.”.The 33% fee increase follows a disastrous drop in revenues for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, the federal agency mandated to run security screening at 89 airports nationwide..“Passenger volumes have decreased drastically,” management earlier wrote in a Summary of the 2022-23 Corporate Plan..“Consequently, the civil aviation security screening landscape has changed significantly and will likely continue to be fluid for some time.”.The Authority in 2021 required a $291.7 million pandemic bailout in addition to its $567.8 million base funding, a total of $859.5 million..Passenger volumes and related fee collections fell 89%..“The civil aviation industry struggled with significantly lower passenger volumes as a result of the pandemic,” said the Corporate Plan..The Authority counted seven million passengers who went through X-ray scanners in 2021 compared to 43.5 million estimated in 2022 and more than 58 million forecast in 2023.
