# Who has to pay the travel tax at NAIA Airport for International Flights?



## jdavis10

I am confused.. I see the terminal fee is P550 Pesos but what is this Travel Tax?

I thought this came part of your travel itinerary? 

Is this required to board my flight? I am leaving tommorrow


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## Asian Spirit

jdavis10 said:


> I am confused.. I see the terminal fee is P550 Pesos but what is this Travel Tax?
> 
> I thought this came part of your travel itinerary?
> 
> Is this required to board my flight? I am leaving tommorrow


Yes, you must pay that at the airport before departure---no choice. There is a booth there where it is to be paid and any employee there can point you to it.
In most counties these fees are included in your ticket. But here due to corruption, the government makes sure they do no have to rely on the airlines to get it paid to them. So---they have a separate place to pay that fee at the airport.


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## jdavis10

*Thanks for the help*

From what I can tell then I don't have to pay the travel tax since I am on tourist visa.

Gene & Viol - You have to pay because you are married and staying here full time

So from what I see if your permanent resident or applying for permanent residency married to Filipina then you have to pay the travel tax

Am I correct?


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## Asian Spirit

jdavis10 said:


> From what I can tell then I don't have to pay the travel tax since I am on tourist visa.
> 
> Gene & Viol - You have to pay because you are married and staying here full time
> 
> So from what I see if your permanent resident or applying for permanent residency married to Filipina then you have to pay the travel tax
> 
> Am I correct?


Could be that we are thinking about two different things here. Now although the type of charges made to depart remain the same. As I understand it and have paid in the past; it is actually a departure or airport tax. That everyone pays upon departure from the country. Married, single, or even a local person that is going out of the country - all pay this fee or tax as you leave.
If the fee you are refering to is something else, then it is something that I am not aware of. Either way, it's under $20us dollars and should be nothing to worry about. Might be best to ask this of a good, qualified travel agent or even at the immigration office if you go there.
Do not depend on the immigration website as the information there is often outdated and thus useless.


Gene


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## yakc130

Gene and Viol said:


> it is actually a departure or airport tax. That everyone pays upon departure from the country. Married, single, or even a local person that is going out of the country - all pay this fee or tax as you leave.
> 
> Gene


Yes. It's a departure tax. 

After checking into my airline, I had to go through another line to pay this _before_ I even went through the security screening.


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## Johnny B

jdavis10 said:


> I am confused.. I see the terminal fee is P550 Pesos but what is this Travel Tax?
> 
> I thought this came part of your travel itinerary?
> 
> Is this required to board my flight? I am leaving tommorrow


You will have to pay it before boarding flight! Sure 550php but bring 750php just in case!


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## cvgtpc1

They take credit cards and foreign funds, US at least, if you don't have the pesos on you.


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## mrtibbs

I visited 2 times there, once in 2010 and 2nd time in 2012 as a visitor for a period of 10 days each time. Upon departure , before allowed passage to my gate, I was required to pay a departure fee, no way around not paying it.


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## M.C.A.

jdavis10 said:


> I am confused.. I see the terminal fee is P550 Pesos but what is this Travel Tax?
> 
> I thought this came part of your travel itinerary?
> 
> Is this required to board my flight? I am leaving tommorrow


Philippines can be a frustrating place to live in and leave, not only do they have you pay an airport tax but there is another stop just after that window and it's the immigration office for immigrants, LOL whoooooo, I had no idea as an immigrant to check in the first 60 days of the year so they got me for $75 in peso's they don't take dollars, I only had $100 on me and had it changed with the bad exchange rate they gave me I have something like $20 when I arrived stateside.


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## Asian Spirit

mcalleyboy said:


> Philippines can be a frustrating place to live in and leave, not only do they have you pay an airport tax but there is another stop just after that window and it's the immigration office for immigrants, LOL whoooooo, I had no idea as an immigrant to check in the first 60 days of the year so they got me for $75 in peso's they don't take dollars, I only had $100 on me and had it changed with the bad exchange rate they gave me I have something like $20 when I arrived stateside.


Ouch!! That's learning the hard way but I'll bet many do the same thing. The departure/airport tax/fees and others is paid everywhere in the world. But normally it is included in the airline ticket and never itemized for the passenger to see or pay separately. Because of the gross corruption, this fee is separate so the government is sure to get theirs. But yea, it is a confusing hassle.
Also, it is required that you show up (in person) each year when renewing your permanent residency visa. For a country where nothing much (including laws) matters, it's amazing how much ridicules red tape there is. My guess is that it will never change---except to get worse and more confusing...


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## ChrisSantos

I think some peope aren't really answering the question fully. 

Their are two fees. 

The departure fee. Sometimes refered to as terminal fee. This was setup around 911 and started out at 750php. It was a levy for security upgrades. About 18months ago the security upgrades were repaid in full. The fee should have been scrapped. However, Philippines being the Philippines, instead chose to lower the fee to the current 550PHP. Only they know what they now use the funds for.

This fee is not negotiable. Gets paid by every travelling passenger, man, woman, or child. Local or foreigner. It can be paid in PHP or US$. Atm are available in departures terminal.

The second fee is 100% seperate issue. It is known as travel tax. For adult passengers, the travel tax is PHP1,620 (Business and Economy class) and PHP810 for children (2-11 years).

This tax is NOT for tourists.


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## raconnor

ChrisSantos said:


> I think some peope aren't really answering the question fully.
> 
> Their are two fees.
> 
> The departure fee. Sometimes refered to as terminal fee. This was setup around 911 and started out at 750php. It was a levy for security upgrades. About 18months ago the security upgrades were repaid in full. *The fee should have been scrapped. However, Philippines being the Philippines, instead chose to lower the fee to the current 550PHP. Only they know what they now use the funds for.*
> 
> This fee is not negotiable. Gets paid by every travelling passenger, man, woman, or child. Local or foreigner. It can be paid in PHP or US$. Atm are available in departures terminal.
> 
> The second fee is 100% seperate issue. It is known as travel tax. For adult passengers, the travel tax is PHP1,620 (Business and Economy class) and PHP810 for children (2-11 years).
> 
> This tax is NOT for tourists.


Aren't there something like 35 million people going through NAIA per year? At 550PHP per head, that's more than half a billion USD in the last 18 months, right? 

How can that much money just go unaccounted for?


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## ChrisSantos

Yeah. It's alot of money. I think they claim it's for continuous upgrades. I haven't noticed any obvious or expensive improvements recently. Though the comfort rooms have improved.

The reason it isn't levied at ticketing isn't about corruption. It is about various exemptions. Their are discounts available to pensioners and exemptions for some OFW and various other people. 

But their are plans of including it in ALL tickets and then issueing a refund receipt to affected passengers. Personally I'd just stick to the current system. Seems like a big hassle to get a small refund. Maybe they hope some people just wont bother. Especially the domestic fee is "only" 200PHP.


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## M.C.A.

ChrisSantos said:


> I think some peope aren't really answering the question fully.
> 
> Their are two fees.
> 
> The departure fee. Sometimes refered to as terminal fee. This was setup around 911 and started out at 750php. It was a levy for security upgrades. About 18months ago the security upgrades were repaid in full. The fee should have been scrapped. However, Philippines being the Philippines, instead chose to lower the fee to the current 550PHP. Only they know what they now use the funds for.
> 
> This fee is not negotiable. Gets paid by every travelling passenger, man, woman, or child. Local or foreigner. It can be paid in PHP or US$. Atm are available in departures terminal.
> 
> The second fee is 100% seperate issue. It is known as travel tax. For adult passengers, the travel tax is PHP1,620 (Business and Economy class) and PHP810 for children (2-11 years).
> 
> This tax is NOT for tourists.


The Airport tax has been there as long as I can remember, I started coming here in 1993 and that tax was there, another expat seemed to have it right the government just wants it's money and they don't want any hassles from the airlines, many government offices have multiple cashier windows and usually one person in charge of each area.


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