Airline Taxes - How do they work?

[here2go]

Hi
I am bemused by Taxes on the flights between DRW and SIN, in particular Silkair / Virgin Codeshare, and wondering if the brains trust can explain.
Zuji has Silkair has return DRW-SIN 15 Dec ret 11 Jan priced at $1234.92, inclusive of $360.92 taxes. Virgin Australia on the same plane is priced at $1344.52, with only $115.52 taxes.

Ignoring Virgin's higher price, how is it that Virgin Australia can have such wildly different taxes to Silkair?

Is it simply a way of hiding fuel surcharges, etc?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi
I am bemused by Taxes on the flights between DRW and SIN, in particular Silkair / Virgin Codeshare, and wondering if the brains trust can explain.
Zuji has Silkair has return DRW-SIN 15 Dec ret 11 Jan priced at $1234.92, inclusive of $360.92 taxes. Virgin Australia on the same plane is priced at $1344.52, with only $115.52 taxes.

Ignoring Virgin's higher price, how is it that Virgin Australia can have such wildly different taxes to Silkair?

Is it simply a way of hiding fuel surcharges, etc?

yes. One airline will have a higher fuel surcharge, or might simply already include the fuel surcharge in the base price. Emirates does this - they have higher fares but these include the fuel surcharge already (or they used to anyway) - so the 'taxes' line was always a lot smaller - probably reflecting the actual fees and taxes on the route.

If you need a breakdown of the taxes you can use the ITA matrix.