Travellers from Samoa to American Samoa are the only ones having to pay a $65 tala airport departure tax at Faleolo Airport. For those travelling from Samoa to other countries like Fiji, Australia and New Zealand, the tax is included in the airline tickets.
The CEO of the Samoa Airport Authority Silamanai Ueta Solomona Jr., responding to KHJ News questions, explained that the facility charge, commonly known as the airport tax is a regulated airport charge that went into effect in 2012.
The fee is incorporated into airline tickets.
However, he said Faleolo Airport has to manually collect the tax at the point of departure for the Pago flights as the two airlines serving the route haven’t remitted the taxes collected from passengers to SAA.
All travellers from Samoa to American Samoa are paying the airport tax, including residents and citizens of Samoa.
The CEO added that other airlines are not affected, and indicated these other airlines have been remitting the tax they collect to the airport authority.
Silamanai pointed out that with borders reopening and air travel returning to normal, the SAA is working with both Samoa Airways and Talofa Airways to resume the collection of the Passenger Facility Fee as required.
That is including the tax on airline tickets and more importantly remitting the money collected to the airport authority.
