A budget airline in France is making an unusual move by retrospectively passing a new tax onto customers who have already paid for their tickets. The decision, announced with just one week’s notice, means that all passengers flying from 3 March 2025 with the Air France-KLM subsidiary, Transavia, will have to pay at least around five euros more on top of the sum they have already paid, or be denied boarding.
The surcharge stems from increases to the so-called “plane ticket solidarity tax” or taxe de solidarité sur les billets d’avion (TSBA), applied in the 2025 budget by French Prime Minister François Bayrou, passed in Senate on 6 February. The tax has risen from €2.63 to €7.40 per passenger for domestic routes, routes within the European Union and Economic Area, to the UK, Switzerland and routes less than 1000 km from France. For flights outside those zones, the charge will go up from €7.51 to €15.
Transavia impose une surtaxe sur des billets déjà achetés ✈️ pic.twitter.com/SWzWHPNoKl
— Masdak (@Masdaak) February 27, 2025
Payment methods and details
Instructions on how to pay up are being sent to customers by email. “Customers holding tickets purchased before October 28, 2024, and after December 7, 2024, for travel on or after March 3, 2025, will shortly receive an email to regularise payment,” the airline said. The email to ticket holders, seen by reporters, includes a payment link. Meanwhile, for all bookings made since February 19, 2025, “the new tax amount is directly included in the price indicated on the website,” Transavia added.
In a turn of events that appears to make the situation more convoluted, ticket holders who purchased their flight between the October and December dates have already paid a fee that was thought to be in line with previous fiscal measures. The airline has said such flyers will be refunded the difference between that sum and the new amount, which Transavia is obliged to collect on behalf of government authorities. A link is provided on their website to claim the reimbursement.
In the event a customer does not settle the surcharge, Transavia has said it “reserves the right to refuse travel” and that ticket holders will not be able to carry out online check-in or access their boarding pass.
Pas d'augmentation d'impôts qu'ils disaient.
— Olivier Dauvers (@Dauvers70) February 25, 2025
Juste de nouvelles taxes, rien à voir😂 pic.twitter.com/JUoIzC1EPU
Controversy
The tax measures have not been introduced without controversy. The French Senate challenged a more expensive version of the TBSA, bringing it down, but failed in attempts to support small, regional French airports by making their routes exempt.
Carriers such as Ryanair have been in dispute not only with airport authorities over fees that they do not want to pass on to customers, but also with governments who have attempted to apply eco tax policies on the aviation sector.
