Airport Departure Tax is a Greedy Annoyance
Lima, Peru
Many countries have the nasty little habit of charging a fee to enter or leave their country—as if the money a tourist or traveler will be injecting into the local economy isn't enough, you've got to pay repeated tributes to the local government.
Visa fees are upfront, overt assaults on your savings, whereas the sneaky airport departure tax is one that can stab at you unexpectedly, just as you're washing your hands of a country.
Not only are airport departure taxes a bureaucratic nuisance, but they can be confusing and difficult to deal with.
Travelers leaving via airports—the most common scene for such fees—have to consistently ask themselves questions: Is there a departure tax in this country? How much is it? Has it been included in my airline ticket or not? Do they only accept cash? Will they give me change back? Can I pay in the local currency, or do I have to pay in U.S. dollars? What in the hell is this departure tax for, anyway?
I'm a shoestring traveler—I take the cheapest flights, regardless. US$50 in savings on airfare can feed me for a week or two.
Lima's international airport
So when I'm asked to pay US$30.25 to leave Lima's airport—just for the privilege of using the airport—I'm angered. This fee doesn't exist at overland border crossings because only 1/10 of the collected money would make it back to the capital. Airports are easier environments to control, so governments gouge where they can.
Over 7.5 million passengers arrived, transited, or departed from Lima's Jorge Chávez International Airport in 2007.
Taking a hypothetical stab at the number of departing international passengers—say 35% of total passengers—that leaves us with about 2.6 million people who had to pay the $30.25 departure fee.
Multiplying the departure fee against the assumed number passenger departures last year brings us to a figure: $79.4 million U.S. dollars.
That's nearly $220,000 collected from passengers every day, simply for the privilege of taking an international flight out of the airport—an absolutely appalling figure.
The value of US$220,000 in Peru is undeniably staggering. What airport services could possibly warrant the collection of such a fee? We're talking about the wages and economy of a heavily impoverished, second-world country here. This is greed and corruption, fueled by opportunity, at an obscene level.
Please, tell me the departure fee is being used to provide better lives for the people of Peru. Tell me they're using the funds to turn desert into farmland, and favelas into communities with running water and telephone service. Tell me my departure dollars are being used to aid the victims of the earthquakes that perpetually ravage the homes constructed of dirt, sticks, and corrugated tin in the southern reaches of the country.
Tell me these things, because otherwise, all I see is a bandit holding me hostage at the airport, refusing to let me fly until I cough up the cash. All I see is governmental corruption, greed, and extortion, shoved right in my face.
Perhaps had they wrapped this fee up into my total ticket price, it would've been more transparent, like the fuel surcharges and other security fee nonsense I'm forced to pay for on each flight. But charging me $30.25 to let Aidric depart from the airport—an infant sitting on a lap who wasn't even occupying a seat on the plane—is absolutely unforgivable. It's shameless greed, pure and simple.
For me to have plopped down $90.75 in cash so that my girlfriend, our two-month-old son, and I can take a flight has really struck a nerve.
I've had it with Peru. I'm done. I'm sick of looking at it. I'm sick of dealing with it. And it'll take an act of god to get me back in this country within another 10 years, maybe more. Scratch off another country in South America that I've no interest in revisiting again.
Goodbye Peru, I won't miss you in the least.
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Travelvice is the home of Craig Heimburger, a perpetual wanderer who has visited over forty countries and is currently in his third year of uninterrupted travel. He is a writer, a photographer, and a free spirit. Recently his girlfriend, Tatiana, and their newborn son, Aidric, can be found by his side.
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Roosh
March 14th, 2008
You won't miss much, though the girls in miraflores weren't bad
babak
March 14th, 2008
maybe the fee is for airport maintenance… it is very expense to keep something like a airport in good shape, runways, electronics, not to mention all the moving parts in for instance the baggage belts. maybe they have a airport tax so the airport can pay for itself…. And they probably change international travelers the tax because locals pay for it out of their income or property taxes…
Craig Heimburger | travelvice.com
March 14th, 2008
This is pretty weird: A company called Fraport acquired 100% ownership of Lima's airport last year.
Lovely.
@Babak: That's like justifying a $15 bucket of popcorn at a movie theatre because they don't make enough profit off the sale of tickets and the such. Only difference here is that I'm being forced to pay for something I see no advertised justification for, or return on. I don't pay for overpriced popcorn. I don't like paying for overpriced departure fees.
Jen/YVR
March 14th, 2008
When I first started in the travel biz, 11 years ago, airport departure taxes weren't too common. It was a time when everyone in the travel industry was making alot more money. For airports, security was (relatively) minimal, environmental levies were essentially non-existant - it just plain cost less to run the whole deal.
These days, alot of airports charge departure taxes in addition to the ones charged by the country and city. Every commercially used airport in Canada charges a tax - ranging from $5 - $15 (paltry compared to Lima's $30+, and I think reasonable, considering the quality of most Canadian airports))but they are charged on your ticket. We moved from the whole surprise-don't-you-wish-you-had-hung-onto-those-last-few-remaining-Canadian-dollars-instead-of-buying-smoked-salmon-and-maple-candy-because-now-you-can't-leave-Vancouver-Airport tax that you only found out about as you tried to head through security. It's now all hidden in those codes that a non-travel industry person could care less about - but certainly still there.
The biggest difference between the tax charged in Lima and the tax charged in, say, Vancouver, or Hong Kong (who not only charges a tax, but also a surcharge - believe it or not, two different things, both costing you money), is that the latter two are recognized as some of the most beautiful, functional, pleasant airports in the world. That $15 and $5, respectively, go a long way. Lima - not so much.
So I definitely have to wonder along with you, Craig - where the hell is all that money going?
Willie
April 13th, 2008
Actually departure fees are included in most airfares, you just don't see them. Some countries receive the fee directly from you and others through the airline. You pay either way. Thats why some airfares look cheap, because they don't show the taxes until you check-out. Taxes are taxes.
Chile requires US citizens to pay $100 to get a visa, but good for many years. A departure fee isn't going to stop me from enjoying my travels. Traveling costs money. If you can eat for $50 for two weeks, don't complain….you've saved plenty…or obviously cheap. Count your blessings.
andrea
May 19th, 2008
I agree that the departure tax has gone up since the renovations at the airport started some years ago, I don't know if you were in Lima before but I assure you that a lot of investment went into trying to fix it up…
but
It's also true that life in Peru is cheap enough in comparison.
Marga
June 18th, 2008
Just to leave a register: US airports are charging up to US$ 300,00 of foreigners at the arrival or departure of international flights. It is almost the cost of the airline ticket!