wnissen
Contributor
I won't make any comment on the politics of this, but will point out that it's by no means sure that the price of a ticket will go up by the full amount of the tax. For price-sensitive commodities, it's pretty common that supply and demand will offset the increase. For instance, if enough people who would have flown at $1000 decide not to at $1200, the airline might choose to cut their price to bring the total cost down. Especially if they need to fill a certain percentage of their seats, and they're not losing money by doing so, it wouldn't surprise me at all. Look at the UK, which has very high passenger taxes, £80 (US$100). Are flights into London any more expensive than, say, Paris, where the tax is a fraction of the UK? No, if anything the competition makes them cheaper. Taxes matter, but it's not as simple as just tacking $200 onto the price.