Protocol between Lisbon Municipal Council and ANA with regard to air passenger arrival tax

 

Lisbon Municipal Council and ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal, S.A., have signed a Protocol that establishes, for 2015, the methodology and conditions for the charging of the air passenger arrival tax, due to come into force on 1 April. 

With a view to contributing to the development of tourism in the Municipality of Lisbon, together with the fact that ANA's new Incentive Plan for the Promotion of Air Traffic and Tourism, due to come into force in the next IATA Summer Season, applies to all the airports in the network except Lisbon International Airport, ANA has agreed to take responsibility for paying the aforementioned air passenger arrival tax for 2015. This means that passengers themselves will not have to pay the tax for this period. 

As the entity responsible for the payment, safeguarding, control and monitoring of the tax, ANA has also agreed to make an advance payment of three million euros by 31 December. This sum relates to the months from April to October, with the amount for the remainder of the year being payable by 31 January 2016. 

The monies to be paid by ANA as air passenger arrival tax will be used exclusively by the Fund for the Development and Tourism Sustainability of Lisbon, which is to finance a series of structural investments. Some of these have already been identified by the Municipal Council and the Lisbon Tourism Board. They include the rehabilitation of the Cais do Sodré and Campo das Cebolas; the creation of assisted accesses to the Castle Hill; and the project to set up a museum space dedicated to the Portuguese Discoveries.

ANA estimates that the Protocol will generate revenue for the municipality, corresponding to what would actually have been paid by taxable passengers, of somewhere between 3,617,250 and 4,452,000 euros.