If you’ve flown Wizz Air with children you could be owed a refund of £13 per child

Here’s how to claim an air-passenger duty refund

A little known refund is available to you if you have flown Wizz Air with children in the last two years.

Parents have unknowingly been paying an adult tax on their childrens’ flights when booking with Wizz Air, as it’s automatically included in their ticket price.

Most airlines don’t apply Air Passenger Duty (APD) to tickets for under 16s, but for some reason Wizz Air does. 

The good news is, you can claim it back if you’ve been charged it on your kids’ tickets in the last two years.

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What is Air Passenger Duty?

Air passenger duty (APD) is the tax that applies to adult passengers (aged 16 and over) boarding a flight from a UK airport. How much you pay depends on the class of travel and the destination of the flight. 

• For domestic flights, the APD is £7 in economy and £14 in a premium cabin
• For international short haul flights of up to 2,000 miles, which includes all EU countries, the APD is £13 in economy and £26 in a premium cabin
• For international long haul flights of 2,001 to 5,500 miles, such as to the US, the APD is £88 in economy and £194 in a premium cabin
• For international flights of more than 5,500 miles, for example, those to Australia, the APD is £92 in economy and £202 in a premium cabin

So for example, a return economy flight to Spain will cost you £13 APD per adult ticket on the outbound flight and nothing on the inbound, since the tax is only applicable on flights originating in the UK. 

It’s worth noting that if children under 16 years old travel in any other class, other than economy, the tax does apply.

What is the APD for?

The main reason for introducing APD back in 1994, was to raise money for the Government, since aviation was the only form of transport that did not pay tax on fuel. More recently, it’s viewed as a kind of environmental tax, intended to encourage other forms of transportation.

It’s unusual for airlines to add this tax to kids’ tickets as they would with adult tickets, but Wizz Air charges the same price for both.

And not only are you paying an adult tax on a child’s ticket, but the airline’s profiting from it. They don’t pass on the tax that is on kids tickets to the HMRC.

Wizz Air’s sneaky charge 

Wizz Air charges one price for adults and children, knowing a proportion of the adult ticket is tax, but it may have something to do with their systems. 

We put the question to them but disappointingly, they didn’t have an answer for it and just gave us a generic fair pricing policy response (see below).

But since they are selling you a child’s flight ticket with an adult tax included, you can request a refund for the tax from them.

However, Wizz Air don’t tell you any of this and meanwhile, it’s profiting from families with kids. 

Who can get a refund?

While Wizz Air quietly includes APD in the price of kids’ tickets, parents can claim the charge back – if they know where they’re looking. 

If you have flown Wizz Air with kids in the last two years (that’s their limit for claiming), you are entitled to a refund of the APD you will have automatically paid on the children’s tickets.

You can claim the refund for children who were under 16 at the age of departure.

The APD doesn’t apply to any flights to the UK, as it’s purely a departure tax, so the refund will be for the outbound flight only.

Update 29 August 2024

Since our article was published Wizz Air have stopped offering customers Air Passenger Duty refunds for children’s flights.

However, the claim form is still live on its website (as detailed below) so if you’ve travelled with children on Wizz Air from the UK in the last two years, it’s still worth giving it a go.

We’ve asked the airline to clarify these changes and will update the article as soon as we know.

How much can I expect to be refunded?

For the routes that Wizz Air flies from the UK, the APD is £13 for short haul and for long haul flights of 2,001 to 5,500 miles the APD is £88.

These tax amounts are based on economy class as Wizz Air does not offer premium or upper class seats.

So the minimum refund you are looking at is £13 per child ticket.

How do I request a refund from Wizz Air?

Log into your Wizz Air account or app (you should have login details from when you booked your flight) and there is a ‘contact us’ tab where you can submit a complaint form. When you click on the ‘submit a complaint form’ tab, there are choices for what your complaint is about. The bottom tab is headed ‘Air Passenger Duty and Tax Refund’.

You’ll need your flight details and you will also need to upload a photo of the child’s passport for which you are claiming the refund for. 

It’s a really simple online form to fill out and takes less than two minutes to complete, so it’s definitely worth doing to get any money owed to you.

Do other airlines put APD on children’s tickets?

Most airlines do not charge an adult tax on a child’s ticket and you can see the price difference between adult and child tickets when booking.

We are not aware of others that follow the same procedure as Wizz Air, but that doesn’t mean they’re not out there.

If you notice you are paying the same ticket price for adults and children when booking an economy flight departing from a UK airport, then you could be paying this tax.

Wizz Air’s response to our questions about why they charge an adult tax on kids’ tickets

“We continuously evaluate our pricing models to align with industry standards and to meet the evolving needs of our customers. We assure you that we adhere to all applicable regulations and strive to maintain fairness in our pricing.

To ensure a simple and easy booking experience for our customers, we are reviewing the current wording on our website to make sure our pricing is clear.”

We also contacted the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for comment, but have not received a response to date.

Missed a flight? You can also claim back APD

Did you know that if you don’t fly, then the airline does not pay HMRC the tax. So, if for any reason you miss your flight or don’t travel, you can claim the APD section of your ticket back from the airline. This could be as much as £202, so it’s definitely worth doing.

The APD loophole

If you want to avoid paying this tax, then fly out of Inverness. Even though Inverness is part of the United Kingdom, the Scottish Highlands and Islands are actually exempt from paying APD. 

It’s part of an agreement that dates back to when APD was first introduced. The only issue is that not many people would naturally be starting their journey from Inverness airport, since it has a slightly limited service!