South Africa passenger charges

Air Passenger Tax

The Air Passenger Tax (APT) is a charge on people who fly out of South Africa. SARS says it applies only to chargeable passengers leaving on an international flight. Domestic flights are excluded ¹.

SARS lists two rates, given on its page as current as of 2025. The rate is R100 for flights to countries in the Southern African Customs Union (Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini). The rate is R190 for flights to other international destinations ¹.

The tax rests on section 47(B) of the Customs and Excise Act No. 91 of 1964. SARS says the Minister of Finance announced the tax in 2000 ¹.

How the Air Passenger Tax is collected

Airlines collect the tax from travellers and pay it to SARS. Operators, registered agents acting for operators and charter operators are liable for the payment. Cargo-only airlines must register but are not liable for payments ¹.

Payment is due within 21 days after the end of the month in which the amount was collected. If the 21st is not a business day, payment is due on or before the last business day before it. Late payment may attract interest and penalties ¹.

• Monthly APT201 returns and payments go through SARS eFiling ¹.
• From 1 July 2025, operators submit passenger manifests through eFiling as CSV files ¹.

ACSA passenger service charge

ACSA published its airport charges for 2026 as Notice No. 3720 of 2026 in Government Gazette 53922, dated 2 January 2026. The notice cites section 5(2)(f) of the Airports Company Act, 1993 (Act No. 44 of 1993), with permission under section 12. It states that the company will levy the charges in its schedule from 1 April 2026 ².

Section 6 of the notice says the operator collects and pays the passenger service charge. The amount is based on the number of embarking passengers and the tariff for each passenger in Annexure C ³.

Two groups are not treated as embarking passengers. The first is a passenger who stays on board when the aircraft lands at a company airport and takes off again. The second is a passenger not older than two years ³.

The notice lists landing charges and parking charges in sections separate from the passenger service charge ².

Passenger service charge rates

Annexure C of the 2026 notice lists the passenger service charge per embarking passenger by where the passenger gets off. It gives each amount excluding and including VAT ⁴.

For comparison, the 2014 schedule set the charge at R127.00 including VAT for a domestic trip, R263.00 to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia or Swaziland and R346.00 to any other state ⁵.