Calls On Minister Nagy To Explain Why Airlines Who Reported Record Losses Due To Covid And Ukraine Are Suffering An ‘Excess Profits’ Tax

Ryanair, Hungary’s No.1 airline, this morning called on Minister of Economic Development, Márton Nagy, to explain why;

1. Airlines are being levied an excess profits ‘tax’, to ‘protect Hungarian families’, when airlines are reporting record losses due to Covid and the Ukraine invasion.
2. Why are Hungarian families and visitors being asked to pay higher fares when air travel to/from Hungary has suffered 2 years of Covid and Ukraine losses?
3. How does raising taxes on air travel ‘help’ Hungarian families.

This is not an ‘excess profits’ tax, it is just highway robbery by a Govt. that is completely out of touch with reality. When other EU Govt’s are cutting travel taxes/airport charges to recover traffic, tourism and jobs post Covid (and the Ukraine invasion), Hungary’s Minister Nagy is following a new and failed economic strategy of imposing ‘excess profits’ tax on loss making airlines like Ryanair and Wizz, which will further reduce the competitiveness of Hungary’s air travel and tourism industries.

Ryanair welcomes the proposed consumer protection investigation and calls on the Budapest City Council to extend this probe to investigate how the Hungarian Govt. is introducing an ‘excess profits’ tax on a loss-making industry such as airlines. When the loss-making airlines are trying to recover from Covid and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the last thing we or passengers need is an ‘excess profits’ tax. Perhaps Minister Nagy can explain why this idiotic tax is being imposed on the loss-making airline sector.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

“One can understand why the Hungarians might impose an excess profits tax on the oil and gas sectors, who are making windfall profits as a result of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. But to extend this ‘excess profits’ tax to a loss making industry like air travel, which is struggling to recover from 2 years of Covid, and the more recent impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, shows that Minister Nagy has forgotten his economics. We will be sending him a new booklet ‘Economics for Dummies’, which we hope he will study so he can now explain why an ‘excess profits’ tax is being imposed on a loss-making industry like airlines. These taxes cannot be borneby loss-making airlines, hard-pressed passengers or their families, and will therefore lead to a dramatic fall in air traffic in Hungary at a time when Hungary’s tourism sector is preparing for post-Covid recovery.

At a time when many other EU countries are lowering taxes and fees to recover traffic, tourism and jobs, the Hungarian Govt. is doing the opposite by making air travel to/from Hungary more expensive and less competitive, which will damage Hungarian air-traffic, tourism and jobs recovery. We call on Minister Nagy to reverse this idiotic ‘excess profits’ tax, or at least confine it to industries like oil or gas who are making windfall profits, and not airlines who are reporting record losses”.