Aer Lingus has described the new €10 airport travel tax as anti-consumer, anti-tourism and anti-business.
The airline says the new tax will further damage already falling consumer demand for air travel and will put Ireland at a significant disadvantage for inbound tourism on which thousands depend for their livelihood.
Aer Lingus also says that the new tax is discriminatory. It says it will not be deployed on an equitable basis across all Irish carriers with all domestic travel and some shorter UK flights only being liable for the lower €2 tax level.
Aer Lingus said the lower tax rate should have been applied to all UK destinations.
Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary has also hit out at the €10 airport tax. Mr O'Leary said the move would hit tourism, although he said Ryanair would support a tax based on the percentage of ticket price.
'We're an island economy in a recession and one of the ways to get out of a recession is to stimulate tourism,' he said.
Speaking in Brussels, Mr O'Leary said that Shannon would be particularly badly hit during the winter since, he claimed, the tax would double the cost of flights there.
'We'll all have to shoulder some kind of pain, so long as it's spread around and it's workable. We're calling for the tax to be a percentage of the ticket price, not a flat tax,' he said.
BMI says the 'punitive tax' will hit leisure and business travellers alike. The airline says it places an unfair burden on airlines and air passengers at what is already a difficult time for a sector attempting to maintain low fares against a backdrop of increasing costs.
'The airline is concerned at the impact the tax will have on businesses with high numbers of employees travelling regularly between Dublin and London,' said Dave Walsh, Sales Manager at BMI Republic of Ireland.
The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation echoed these remarks when it said the €10 departure tax was another blow against competitiveness and should have been avoided.
Simon Nugent, CEO of the Irish Travel Agents’ Association, said the Government had missed out on one significant benefit possible through a departures levy – the introduction of a fund to protect consumers in the event that the airline they are using goes out of business.
