Quotate Italy

Venice airport, the Council of State annuls the 2.5 euro surcharge on tickets

It had been introduced by the lagoon city's municipality. Save the airport management company had appealed together with the low-cost airlines

30 May 2024

2' min read

The Council of State has annulled the municipal surtax of EUR 2.50 instituted by the Municipality of Venice for passengers departing from Marco Polo airport. "With great satisfaction SAVE learns of the decision of the Council of State which, with sentence 04858/2024, annuls the municipal surtax of 2.50 euros instituted by the Municipality of Venice for passengers departing from Marco Polo airport," reads a statement. .

The Council of State upheld the appeal made by, among others, SAVE, reforming the sentence issued by the Veneto Regional Administrative Court and annulling the Municipality's resolution of 23 December 2022 instituting the municipal surtax, acknowledging "the erroneousness of the Venice Municipality's acts, both in terms of procedure and the lack of motivation of the choice made," reads a statement. In addition to the management company of the lagoon city airport, whose appeal was filed by lawyer Alfonso Celotto, the airlines Wizz Air, easyJet, Ryanair, Volotea as well as the Association of Low Cost Carriers in Italy, Aicalf, had separately opposed the Venice Municipality's decision.

According to the text of the judgment, with the introduction of the new tax of 2.5 euro "the increase per passenger, considering the average price of air tickets, and in particular the fares applied by low-cost companies, such as the appellant carriers, is proportionally excessive; in fact, it is quantifiable at between 4% and 7% of the average fare of a low fares company for a one-way ticket". The increase is proportionally excessive, and is proportional to the average price of a low fare.

"This outcome is in line with the position that SAVE has always expressed, for which the new tax would not only damage the development of the third national intercontinental airport, but would also undermine that of the vast area served, considering the contribution of the airport's activity in terms of mobility, employment, and economic growth.

The ruling sets an important precedent since other municipalities in Italy are preparing to adopt a similar measure: a study by Aicalf calculated that the abolition of the municipal surtax would lead to an increase of 9 million passengers and a 4.2% increase in GDP.

The judgement states that the municipality did not give sufficient reasons for the introduction of the tax, which 'would end up being characterised as a solidarity contribution in favour of the municipality of Venice, based on the mere occasional use of the Venice airport, which could have been adopted by other measures to restore the municipality's deficit, such as the Tari (Venice city tax) and the tourist tax "that would make it more consistent with the ratio pursued and suitable for restoring the deficit, having regard also to the reasons for that deficit' and which affects persons who have no connection whatsoever with the needs of the city and who 'could probably be neither Venetian citizens nor tourists visiting Venice, unlike the persons affected by the Venice tourist tax'.