Ecuador Ticket Tax

May 27th, 2009 by Gary

An Ecuador Living subscriber just asked this question about the Ecuador air ticket tax.

Ecuador Ticket Question:

Hi Merri & Gary, I wonder if you can explain in one of your elines what the Ecuador ticket fee is when you are exiting Ecuador. Generally, we don’t worry about the amount of cash in our pockets as long as the credit card is there. Fortunately, I still had cash in my pocket when we were going home in February and was surprised to be asked for some Ecuador ticket exit fee. Also, a debit card was not a usual card we carried; in fact I only got one for our trip to Ecuador and amusingly enough, the guard at the bank always had to help me with the transaction! Easy to love Ecuadorians…Take care. Thanks.

All tickets to Ecuador or anywhere have all types of taxes included in the fare.

The typical US tax includes 7.5% U.S. government excise tax, Security Fee of $2.50 per U.S. enplanement, Airport passenger facility charges (PFCs) of up to $18 roundtrip, U.S. government excise tax of $3.50 on each flight segment, defined as one takeoff and one landing.

Plus or Hawaii and Alaska, a U.S. government excise tax of $7.70 is added plus for international travel including Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands there can be other government taxes and fees (including U.S. government excise tax) of up to $180 based on destination.

If there is a fuel surhare then there is tax on the surcharge as well. Here is an estimate of the components of a $400 domestic fare.

The following shows how that $400 pie is divvied up:

$240 — Roundtrip Airfare
$93.02 — Fuel Surcharge
$18 — Passenger Facility Charge — Airport Improvements
$14 — Federal Flight Segment Tax — FAA projects
$10 — Sept. 11 Security Fee — TSA
$18 — Federal Sales Tax (7.5 percent) on Airfare
$6.98 — Federal Sales Tax (7.5 percent) on Fuel Surcharge

Merri noted in here recent article Ecuador Tickets

“Here’s what I found…Award Ticket round trip from London to Charlotte:

Mileage required 50,000 and up to 70,000.

Award available on most days, plenty of seats, etc.

Sounds good…right? A free ticket! Great for kids as there is no tax advantage and it’s there and red hot!

However, let’s look closer, the requirement for taxes was $316.23!! Other flights, taxes were $375.10. Wow!”

There are taxes everywhere we travel… but normally they are just added onto the price of the ticket. This is not so in Ecuador

The international departure tax in Ecuador is currently (May 2009) USD $44.30 per person. This is payable in cash (dollars or Euro). Credit cards are not accepted.

All international travelers must pay the departure fee, so be sure to save some cash for the airport.

For domestic flights (including the Galapagos), the departure tax is included in the ticket price – no additional payments are needed at the airport.

Regards,

Gary

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