edition.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/08/30/france.air.aid.reut/

And everyone else who flies on Air France....


PARIS, France (Reuters) -- France's government will start taking steps to introduce a levy on airline tickets from next year to fund aid for Africa, President Jacques Chirac said on Monday.

"I have asked the government to start the necessary procedures so that such a levy is in place from next year," he said in a speech at a meeting with French ambassadors.

Chirac has been urging other world leaders to impose such a levy to finance extra aid for Africa. He said last January a tax of $1 per ticket could raise $10 billion a year to fund campaigns against diseases in Africa.

He said on Monday France, Germany, Algeria, Brazil, Chile, and Spain had decided to join forces to push the idea at a Union Nations summit in September.

The Group of Eight rich nations pledged in June to consider such a levy on airline tickets but the proposal has prompted a mixed response.

The United States said it opposed the idea but would not block the plan if others wanted to implement it. Some European countries, including Greece and Ireland, have given the idea a frosty reception during European Union discussions.

The airline industry is also opposed to such a levy.

"If the politicians are really serious about helping development, this is the wrong way to go about it," said Anthony Concil, spokesman for the Geneva-based International Air Transport Association.

"It's going to hurt the demand for air travel in general, but more importantly, it's a disincentive for people who are travelling to holiday destinations in developing nations."

Concil said people working in the tourist and service sectors industry in such countries risked being adversely impacted: "Making air travel more expensive is certainly not the way to help the third world."

Germany has backed Chirac's push but a German Finance Ministry spokesman said on Monday Berlin had no concrete plans to introduce a levy on airline tickets.

The spokesman said a number of initiatives at the international level would be discussed further.

While no further details were available of amount of money France plans to levy, sums of up to three euros per airline ticket were mooted when EU finance ministers discussed the idea in May.

Another version, check the highlighted quote:

France flier tax to go toward AIDS
link

The Associated Press

PARIS -- France plans to put a tax on airline tickets next year to help finance the global struggle against poverty and diseases such as AIDS that are ravaging the developing world.

While the idea is still being debated at the international level, France wants to start a trial program to prove it could work. France, Germany, Spain, Algeria, Brazil and Chile plant to push for an international levy on airline tickets at a U.N. summit in mid-September.

French Finance Minister Thierry Breton said airline tickets were chosen because airlines benefited from globalization and paid low tax rates, and because airline passengers were "rarely among the poorest citizens."

The only tyrannical  thieves that are going to take my money and do as they please is the govt. of the United States of America....tell me I ain't patriotic!!!

Like I needed ANOTHER reason NOT to go to france.

That would give me just one more reason not to go there. Like I needed any anyways.

Like I was going to france in the first place.

Abstinence is FREE! We don't taxes to fight AIDS.

I feel bad for the children born into the disease, but the adults in africa with AIDS who continue to KNOWINGLY spread it.  Fuck'em.  Slow death Darwinism.

all the commies want to take your money and give it to africa.... but mention lowering their huge trade barriers to africa to help it have an economy and you better watch out. FREE MARKET SYSTEMS!!! HELPING POOR PEOPLE!!! it just can't be.

Screw France.

Quoted: I feel bad for the children born into the disease, but the adults in africa with AIDS who continue to KNOWINGLY spread it.  Fuck'em.  Slow death Darwinism.

I read not long ago that many African tribes practice having sex with very young children because those bone-heads believe that it will cure them of AIDS.

"Sept, 2007- Air France announces that it is in bankruptcy proceedings, after seeing a 60% drop in domestic and a 100% drop in international flight bookings, due to the French governments misguided attempts at world participation"

Quoted: "Sept, 2007- Air Al Queida announces that it is in bankruptcy proceedings, after seeing a 60% drop in domestic and a 100% drop in international flight bookings....."

Fixed it for ya.

C'mon guys, the Oil for Food farce is out of the bag and these guys need to finance their mistresses. This is an emergency! Give Chirac money now for his mistress and her children. Do it for her children.

Quoted: Chirac has been urging other world leaders to impose such a levy to finance extra aid for Africa. He said last January a tax of $1 per ticket could raise $10 billion a year to fund campaigns against diseases in Africa.

Um.  10 billion people fly to France every year?

Quoted: Quoted: Chirac has been urging other world leaders to impose such a levy to finance extra aid for Africa. He said last January a tax of $1 per ticket could raise $10 billion a year to fund campaigns against diseases in Africa. Um.  10 billion people fly to France every year?

I think that's if every ticket in the world, on every airline, was subject to this crap.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Chirac has been urging other world leaders to impose such a levy to finance extra aid for Africa. He said last January a tax of $1 per ticket could raise $10 billion a year to fund campaigns against diseases in Africa. Um.  10 billion people fly to France every year? I think that's if every ticket in the world, on every airline, was subject to this crap.

ah