DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE MEASURE. 2.1. Objective of the measure
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE MEASURE. 2.1. Summary of the 2002 tonnage tax
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE MEASURE. (12) As of 30 March 2009, the Irish authorities introduced an excise duty referred to as the ‘air travel tax’ (hereinafter ‘ATT’) which airline operators are liable to pay in respect of ‘every departure of a passenger on an aircraft from an airport’ located in Ireland. The tax is based on section 55(2) of the Finance (No 2) Act 2008 (‘the Finance Act’).
(13) It is apparent from section 55(1) of the Finance Act that the definition of ‘passenger’ exempts transfer and transit passengers from payment of the tax. Pursuant to that provision, a transfer passenger is ‘a passenger who arrives on a flight to an airport and who departs from the airport on a further flight, other than to the airport where the passenger’s journey originated, where both flights are part of a single booking and where the length of time between the scheduled time of arrival of the flight to the airport and the scheduled time of departure of the flight from that airport is not more than 6 hour’. Likewise, a transit passenger is ‘a passenger who is on board an aircraft which lands at an airport in the course of its journey and who continues his or her journey on that aircraft.’
(14) At the time of the introduction of the tax, it was levied on the basis of the distance between the airport where the journey began and the airport where the journey ended, at the rate of (i) EUR 2 in the case of a journey from an airport to a destination located no more than 300 km from Dublin airport and (ii) EUR 10 in any other case.
(15) As of 1 March 2011, the rates were changed into one single rate of EUR 3 applicable to all departures, regardless of the distance travelled.