Aeroports de Montreal (ADM) announced that it would increase its improvement fee to $20 for passengers departing from Montreal-Trudeau Airport. Introduced as a temporary measure in 1997, the tax was meant to upgrade the country’s second busiest airport.

Not only has the tax become permanent, but it has also been raised to the same level as the one for Toronto-Pearson, whose 10-year $4.5-billion redevelopment program started in 1996, even though Montreal-Trudeau says it has spent $1.1 billion since 2000 on its modernization and expansion program as the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies stated.

When the Government of Canada announced its new airport rent policy in May 2006, with a 10-year plan in which a 50% rent reduction was envisaged for Montreal, it published the following statement:

“The government expects airport authorities to pass on savings through fee reductions. Already, the majority of Canada’s major airport authorities have committed to ensuring that a significant portion of the rent savings will be passed on to air carriers and passengers through adjustments to fees. The government will propose legislation that will enhance Canadian airport authorities’ transparency and accountability measures.”

“ACTA can only conclude that if there were any savings, they have certainly not been passed on to passengers, and that the government has done nothing to enhance transparency since Bill C-20 died on the order paper,” commented Christiane Theberge, President and CEO of ACTA.

Moreover, this improvement tax is in addition to many other taxes, fees and surcharges that are ultimately passed on to travellers, such as the Security Charge, which was introduced in April 2002 and whose $434-million surplus is not even used to improve airport security. It is estimated that such fees and surcharges represent 30% to 40% of the final airline bill the consumer pays.

“This situation is unacceptable, and the Canadian government must act to significantly reduce the unsustainable burden of almost $1billion of government fees and surcharges that are imposed on the air travel sector and ultimately passed down to the travel consumer,” Ms. Theberge concluded.