New airport tax

I refer to the front page article (July 31) about the introduction of a new airport security tax of 55c per passenger by MIA, as from April 1, 2003, announced by Lawrence Zammit, chairman of MIA.

Mr Zammit has stated that this new tax has nothing to do with the takeover of Malta International Airport by the Vienna airport authorities since Mr Zammit said that a request was made almost two years ago to introduce such a security tax.

I have my serious doubts about this statement since MIA had raised the airport service charge from Lm5 to Lm6 on April 1, 2000 on the pretence of higher security measures taken following the Lockerbie revelations that the case could have been loaded in Malta.

In the same article it was stated that 1.4 million passengers used MIA and at Lm6 per person, MIA has netted Lm8 million from the airport service charge alone. Certainly, the new Austrian CEO should have had more foresight to prevent Mr Zammit from making such an announcement only two days after the Vienna airports group officially took over the running of MIA.

I appeal to Dr Michael Refalo, the minister responsible for tourism, not to sanction such an unnecessary tax.

Malta already has the second highest departure tax in Europe (Lm16) after Britain (Lm18.50) but as from November 1, when Britain will reduce its departure tax by Lm6.50 for passengers travelling to EU applicant states, MIA will become the most expensive airport to depart from in Europe!

Dr Refalo should follow the example of Britain and reduce Malta civil aviation tax of Lm10 per person by 50 per cent to encourage more Maltese to travel abroad and help the local outgoing travel industry.