A few days ago, Viktor Orbán's government introduced new income taxes to be paid by banks, energy companies, insurance companies, retail chains and airlines from 1 July.
According to Orbán, these businesses make extraordinary profits from fees, commissions and interests.
That is why he decided to take a large part of these profits to fill a gap in the state budget. He wants to finance the energy costs to make it cheaper for people, with some going to finance the army.
One of the sectors in question is airlines, which are charged extra fees for each ticket by the Hungarian government. The fee is based on where a passenger is flying.
If, for example, one is traveling from the Budapest or Debrecen airports to a European destination, Ryanair has to pay a fee of 3900 forints or €9.80 for each ticket. If a passenger flies to a non-European destination, the fee is 9797 forints or €24.6. The measure only concerns departures, not transit routes, i.e. transfers at a Hungarian airport.
