Air Passenger Tax

What is it?

The Air Passenger Tax (APT) is a fee that people travelling by plane pay when flying out of South Africa. The tax helps support air travel infrastructure and is a common international practice. In South Africa, airlines are responsible for collecting the Air Passenger Tax from travellers and then paying it over to SARS.

In 2000 the Minister of Finance announced that an APT was to be instituted on chargeable passengers on a chargeable aircraft departing from an airport in South Africa to a destination outside of the country.  This is also applicable to charter companies.   More information about this is available on Section 47(B) of the Customs and Excise Act No. 91 of 1964. 

Currently, as of 2025, the tax is:

• R100 for flights to countries in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) — like Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, and Eswatini.
• R190 for flights to other international destinations.  

Who is it for? 

The tax is not applicable to domestic flights.  It is only applicable to chargeable passengers leaving on an international flight.  Operators (airline), registered Agents (those acting on behalf of an operator) or charter operator will be liable for the payment of the APT to SARS on a monthly basis after reconciliation of the passenger manifests.  Non carrying passenger, airlines (cargo) will be required to register for APT purposes but will not be liable for APT payments.  

How to register 

All operators (airlines), duly appointed agents and charter operator have to register for this tax which can only be done at the Customs and Excise Branch Office at OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA).

Every operator or charter company must complete an APT102. If an operator is required to appoint an agent, the APT101 must also be completed and the following documents must be attached:

• Copy of company registration documents (issued by the Registrar of Companies and Close Corporations);
• Copy of Operating Certificate (issued by the South African Civil Aviation Authority);
• Proof of banking details (letter from the bank confirming the details); and
• Any other documents/information as may be required by the Commissioner. 

Once the above has been received, it will be captured on the SARS system and an APT reference number will be allocated to the operator that applied for registration. 

When and how should it be paid? 

An Operator, duly appointed agent or charter company is liable to pay SARS, within 21 days after the end of the month during which the amount was collected.  Where the 21^st day is not a “Business Day” such payment must be made on or before the last “Business Day” prior to the 21^st to avoid late payment which may incur interest and possible penalties.

All airline operators and their duly appointed agents who are registered and liable to pay the APT are required to register on SARS eFiling for the submission of their monthly APT201 returns and for making payment. All APT account payments and submission of APT returns will have to be made via the eFiling system. More information on how to make a payment is available in the SARS Payment Rules guide.

New APT System from September 2023:

In September 2023, SARS implemented a new system for APT that allowed APT201 returns and subsequent payments to be submitted via eFiling.

At the inception of this new system, APT clients were issued with new APT tax numbers, which were used to register these APT clients onto eFiling and to activate the APT tax type. The registration on eFiling is done by the taxpayer after being issued with the APT tax number. It must be noted, however, that this new APT system requires the use of the following banks for activation:

• Standard Bank
• First National Bank
• Nedbank
• ABSA
• Citi Bank
• Investec Bank
• Standard Chartered Bank

Passenger Manifest Submission

From 1 July 2025, APT clients will be required to submit passenger manifests through the SARS eFiling platform using a CSV file. A CSV file and specification document has been published under “Related documents” under this APT webpage to assist with the submission of the passenger manifests. This requirement will be legislated under the APT Rules in the Customs and Excise Act.

Registration Updates

Through SARS eFiling, airlines are able to update their registration details and to request deregistration when necessary. The system ensures that only authorised users are able to perform these actions.

General queries regarding APT can be directed to:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]