Travelers from Samoa to American Samoa are the only ones having to pay a $65 tala airport departure tax at Faleolo Airport. For those traveling 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 point of departure for the Pago flights as the two airlines serving the route haven’t been remitted the taxes collected from passengers to SAA.
All travelers 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 indicate d 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 in airline tickets and more importantly remitting the money collected to the airport authority.
The minister responsible for Samoa Airways, Leatinuu Wayne Sooialo confirmed this saying that only passengers to American Samoa have to pay the airport tax at the airport. This is because the airlines still owe a lot of departure taxes from the past.
He said that for Samoa Airways, the airline is still trying to pay what was collected from the past.
The minister added that all other airlines include the tax as part of their fares and are remitting their departure taxes monthly to SAA on time.
The amount of the IOUs were not disclosed but the minister said that he would provide the actual figures.
