Ottawa could make air journey extra inexpensive by chopping air journey taxes and charges, says MEI – IEDM/MEI

• Taxes and government-imposed charges can account for as much as 43 per cent of the price of a flight.

Montreal, August 18, 2025 – The excessive value of home air journey is essentially as a result of excessive degree of taxes and charges the federal authorities imposes on the trade, says the MEI.

“Reducing the cost of air travel is entirely within Ottawa’s control, because it is Ottawa that has driven prices up in the first place,” says Samantha Dagres, Communications Manager on the MEI. “The government refuses to tackle these exorbitant fees, preferring to scapegoat the industry.”

The authorities costs a wide range of taxes and charges on airports and passengers, which make up a good portion of the ticket worth on key routes.

For occasion, passengers immediately pay for the Air Travellers Security Charge, amounting to $9.94 per home flight or $34.42 per worldwide flight. The equal payment within the United States is capped at about $15.42 Canadian for a round-trip.

Indirectly, passengers pay the hire on airport lands by means of the Airport Improvement Fees which might be charged on each ticket.

Canada’s airports are operated by non-public, non-profit organizations, however the land they sit on is owned by the federal authorities, which collects hire. These government-imposed prices are handed on to airways and, finally, to passengers.

In 2024, airport authorities paid a report $494.8 million in hire to the federal authorities, a rise of $75.6 million in a single 12 months. A decade in the past, in 2014, these charges totalled $294.4 million. That represents a 68 per cent improve in simply ten years.

Airport hire represents between one quarter (in Calgary) and one third (in Vancouver) of the revenues main airports get from Airport Improvement Fees.

For a round-trip flight between Montreal and Toronto, as an example, passengers pay $77 in airport enchancment charges, of which $25—almost one-third—is used to cowl the hire funds airports make to Ottawa.

On a $190.04 flight between the 2 cities, the federal government’s share of charges, together with the gross sales taxes, quantity to $68.04, or roughly 35.8 per cent of the ultimate ticket worth.

Here is how that compares on different fashionable Canadian airline routes:

• On a $266.46 round-trip between Vancouver and Montreal: $72.54 in taxes and charges, or 27 per cent of the ticket worth.
• On a $118.36 round-trip between Toronto and Calgary: $51.03 in taxes and charges, or 43 per cent of the ticket worth.
• On a $183.06 round-trip between Vancouver and Toronto: $51.52 in taxes, or 28 per cent of the ticket worth.

According to the Competition Bureau, it’s estimated that when a brand new competitor begins working a route between two cities, fares fall by a mean of 9 per cent.

“Ottawa has the power to make air travel affordable once more, since it remains the main contributor to its unaffordability,” provides Ms. Dagres. “Using airports as cash cows instead of treating them as critical infrastructure hurts Canadians who depend on reliable air service to move around the country.”

* * *

The MEI is an unbiased public coverage assume tank with workplaces in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory providers to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public coverage debate and reforms primarily based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.

—30 —

Interview requests
Samantha Dagres
Manager, Communications
Cell: 438-451-2154