Taxes, Airfare | featured news

The tax holiday is over for U.S. airlines. Many carriers dropped fares Monday as federal taxes were added back into the total ticket price for travelers after a 16-day Federal Aviation Administration shutdown. Most U.S. airlines raised base fares last month when taxes were suspended, pocketing the money that would have gone to the government and swallowing the potential price break for consumers.

The government is likely to lose more than $1 billion in airline ticket taxes because lawmakers have left town for a month without resolving ...

Finally, good news from the gridlock in Congress. Or maybe not. The federal government Saturday stopped collecting taxes on airline tickets, so flying suddenly got cheaper, right? Wrong. Many airlines just increased their airfares to match the tax drop.