All direct flights from Belfast International

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  Belfast Chill

  04 February 2012 at 11:09 | #

  I'm looking for flights from Belfast to Washington DC in May, and I was astonished to see that over half the price was going on taxes and charges. This was for flights through Heathrow. I thought that long-haul flights from Belfast were exempt from Air Passenger Duty, or does that not apply if you have to connect to London?
  
  Is there any other way around these charges?

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    James Avery

    04 February 2012 at 14:47 | #

    Long-haul flights from Belfast are not exempt from Air Passenger Duty (APD), but if you take flights to New York with United Continental Airlines, you only pay Air Passenger Duty (APD) at the reduced European rate. Unfortunately, airlines are notoriously vague when it comes to actually giving a breakdown of the taxes you pay -- you would have thought they would want to make you know how much of your fare was not going directly to them. One airline that is very open about these charges is Flybmi, and I've looked at their long-haul flight connections from Belfast, and you certainly will pay the higher rate of tax if you go through Heathrow. As far as I understand it, you will also pay a higher rate tax for any connecting flights you take through New York.
    
    There are two ways that you can go around this extra tax -- firstly, fly to New York, and then transfer down to Washington DC by train. This only takes around four hours, and Newark airport has its own station adjacent to the terminals, although stupidly, the fastest trains don't stop there! The train should cost around US$100 return. The other option is just to look for flights to Washington DC from Dublin instead.

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