Lowering the boarding fee will help make airfare available for R$ 200, says Márcio França – 03/27/2023 – Market

The Minister of Ports and Airports, Márcio França, said that he plans to try to lower airport boarding fees to make his plan for airlines to sell airline tickets for R$200 viable.

“It is not correct for the boarding fee to cost R$ 54. The airport concessionaire cannot give a discount, but it can give some kind of incentive so that, for example, the person consumes a piece of the boarding fee at the airport”, said França, during the Arko Conference event, in São Paulo.

The boarding tax is charged by airports to passengers, and the amount is usually included in airline tickets. In recent years, several Brazilian airports have been granted to the private sector, and the collection from this fee is one of the revenues of the managing companies.

França revealed the idea of ​​a program to try to make tickets cheaper in early March, but the initiative has not yet been detailed. The plan is for there to be an agreement with the airlines to sell tickets at R$200 a stretch to retirees, students and civil servants. Only those with a salary below R$ 6,800 will benefit.

The government’s plan is to sell these tickets in a consignment format for civil servants, retirees and students with Fies (financing fund for higher education). France claims that these three groups add up to 40 million people.

“If we managed to get these people to buy their flights in advance, we would make a direct deduction from these people’s payroll,” he said.

“Last year, there were 90 million tickets, the same number as before the pandemic. However, only 10% of CPFs in Brazil fly”, he said.

Each beneficiary of the program would be entitled to two round trip tickets per person per year for a total of R$800. This would allow you to take a companion on the trip. According to the minister’s calculations, the financing would cost these passengers 12 installments of R$72.

“Last year, there were 90 million tickets, the same number as before the pandemic. However, only 10% of CPFs in Brazil fly”, he said.

Brazilian airlines have shown interest, but the matter is still under debate and there is no set date for implementation. França defends that it would be a way to take advantage of the vacant seats of the aircraft. The average occupancy of flights is around 80%.

Shortly after the idea was made public, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) made a tough charge to the ministers. Without naming names, he asked that the holders of the folder who are authors of some “genius” present them internally, so that they receive the proper processing within the government before making them public.