Verified on 7 November 2026 on the Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport operator’s own fee pages, the Belize Tourism Board’s Mexico-to-Belize page (read rendered in a browser), and the Government of Belize Press Office’s Cabinet briefs.
Leaving Belize by air from Philip S. W. Goldson International (BZE), the regulated departure charges are US$53.50 in Passenger Service Fees plus a US$20.00 PACT fee, and they are charged on your air ticket and collected by the airline. The airport operator says the Government of Belize “along with the Belize Airports Authority approved regulated airport fees on tickets”. Leaving by land, the Belize Tourism Board’s Mexico-to-Belize page lists three full-rate charges: a BZ$30.00 Departure Processing Fee, a BZ$2.50 Border Development Fee and a BZ$7.50 PACT Conservation Fee. They add up to BZ$40 (our sum), the same BZ$40 the page quotes for longer stays. Residents of southern Mexico are partly or wholly exempt (below).
The two exits differ in currency and in who takes the money: the airport fees are itemised in US dollars and folded into the fare, while the land-border charges are printed in Belize dollars with approximate Mexican-peso equivalents, and no official page we read gives a US-dollar figure for them.
The fees
By air — Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport (BZE)
| Charge | Amount as printed | Who pays | How it is collected | Set by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Passenger service | US$15.00 | Departing passenger | On the ticket, by the airline or travel agency | Government of Belize with the Belize Airports Authority |
| Airport development | US$36.00 | Departing passenger | On the ticket | Same |
| Security | US$1.25 | Departing passenger | On the ticket | Same |
| Hold baggage | US$1.25 | Departing passenger | On the ticket | Same |
| Passenger Service Fees, total | US$53.50 | |||
| PACT (Protected Areas Conservation Trust) | US$20.00 | Departing passenger | On the ticket | Described by the operator as “government-levied” |
The four itemised charges come from the operator’s Refund Policy page; the US$53.50 total and the US$20.00 PACT figure are printed on its FAQ (“Passenger Service Fees are US$53.50”, “The PACT Fees are US$20.00”). (The Refund Policy’s itemised line prints “US20.00”, without the dollar sign.) The four items add up to US$53.50 — that check is our arithmetic. No airport page prints a combined figure; adding the two printed totals gives US$73.50, which is also our sum, not the operator’s.
The money is collected for the Belize Airport Concession Company Limited (BACC), which runs the airport: in the operator’s words, “the Airline, which has collected the fee, has paid BACC”.
By land
| Charge | Amount as printed | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Departure Processing Fee | BZ$30.00 | Full rate |
| Border Development Fee | BZ$2.50 | Full rate |
| PACT Conservation Fee | BZ$7.50 | Full rate |
| Full rate, total (our sum) | BZ$40 | Visits beyond the exemption periods below |
These amounts come from the Belize Tourism Board’s Mexico-to-Belize page; it does not say whether the same rates apply at the Guatemala crossing. The Government of Belize Press Office names the same three levies — “Border Development fee, Conservation fee, and the Belize Departure Tax” — in a Cabinet brief of 29 February 2024, but gives no amounts.
The fee is set by the Government of Belize, and the airport operator, the Belize Tourism Board and Belize Immigration are the bodies to confirm it with before you rely on a figure here: fees of this kind change by government decision.
Who to contact
Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport (Belize Airport Concession Company)
- Call Center: +(501) 225-2045
- Email: [email protected]
- Post: P.O. Box 1564, Belize City
Belize Immigration (the department whose officers staff exit control)
- Headquarters, Belmopan: +(501) 822-3860
- WhatsApp: +(501) 610-2143
- Belize City office: +(501) 222-4620 and International Airport: +(501) 205-2214 — these two are listed by the airport operator, not on Immigration’s own contact page
- Immigration’s contact page also carries an online contact form, and says: “We are currently working on updating our contact information for the immigration offices and stations throughout the country.” It publishes no office addresses or opening hours, so we give none.
The airport’s Passenger Info page also lists a “Completed Disembarkation Form on departure” among Immigration’s requirements.
Exemptions and refunds
Mexican residents at the land border
The Belize Tourism Board sets out the rules by place of residence and length of stay:
| Who | Exit charge |
|---|---|
| Residents of Othón P. Blanco, Quintana Roo (the municipality that includes Chetumal) | Exempt from all departure-fee charges, regardless of length of stay |
| Residents of Campeche, Yucatán, Tabasco, Chiapas and Quintana Roo (outside Othón P. Blanco), staying less than 7 days | No exit charges |
| The same five states, longer stays | BZ$40 |
| Mexicans from other states, staying under 2 days | Minimum fee of BZ$2.50 |
| Mexicans from other states, staying longer | BZ$40 |
The five-state exemption is a Cabinet decision. The Press Office’s brief of 29 February 2024 records the “removal of border exit taxes … for up to seven days stay in Belize for all persons residing in these Mexican states”, naming the Belize-Mexico crossing at Santa Elena, Corozal; a brief of 7 July 2025 records Cabinet approving the removal for residents of Campeche, Yucatán, Tabasco, Chiapas and Quintana Roo staying up to seven days, together with a Visitor’s Digital Border Crossing Card. The Othón P. Blanco exemption appears only on the Belize Tourism Board page; we did not find it in the Cabinet briefs we read.
Belizeans flying out
The airport’s Refund Policy lets Belizean residents and citizens claim back the airport development fee and the PACT fee. The policy says claims must be made within six months after travel and within a fiscal year, and that qualified claims “are normally honored within 5 business days” by BACC — except the PACT refund, which is claimed from the airline, not from BACC. The policy applies to Belizeans only, not to foreign visitors.
Not a departure tax: the car-park “exit fee”
At the airport, “exit fee” also means a parking charge. The operator’s Quick Facts page lists a US$2.00 exit fee in Car Park A and overnight parking at US$9.00 per night. That is for vehicles, not passengers; our Belize airport taxi prices page covers getting to and from the terminal, and the BZE vs Municipal airports page explains which Belize City airport handles international flights.
What we could not establish
- PACT’s own fee page and legal basis. The Protected Areas Conservation Trust’s site, pactbelize.org, refused scripted requests on 7 November 2026; read in a browser the same day, its home, about and search pages published no conservation-fee amount. The PACT amounts above therefore come from the airport operator and the Belize Tourism Board, not from PACT.
- The legal instrument. No page we read cites a Statutory Instrument or Act number for the airport fees or for the land-border Departure Processing Fee.
- A US-dollar figure for the land fee. No official page we read prints one, and none states an exchange rate. We have not converted it; our Belize currency and ATMs page covers the Belize dollar exchange rate as the Central Bank of Belize states it.
- A government source for the land-border amounts. The Press Office names the levies but not their size; the amounts come only from the Belize Tourism Board.
- Cash at the airport, seaports and the western border. We found nothing on whether any departure charge is still paid in cash at BZE, or on the exit charges for water taxis to Mexico or Honduras, or at the Benque Viejo crossing to Guatemala.
How we researched this
Every amount above is quoted as its source prints it, read on 7 November 2026; the Belize Tourism Board and Immigration pages were read rendered in a browser. The sums marked as ours are the only figures we calculated.
Sources
- Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport — Refund Policy — the four itemised fees, the “US20.00” PACT line, “government-levied”, fees approved “on tickets” by the Government of Belize with the Belize Airports Authority, airline collection for BACC, the Belizean refund rules
- Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport — FAQ — “Passenger Service Fees are US$53.50”, “The PACT Fees are US$20.00”, call centre, email and post address
- Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport — Quick Facts — the US$2.00 Car Park A exit fee and US$9.00 overnight parking
- Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport — Passenger Info — Immigration’s Belize City and airport phone numbers, the disembarkation form
- Belize Tourism Board — Transportation from Mexico to Belize — the three land-border charges and the BZ$40 total, every Mexican-resident exemption, including Othón P. Blanco
- Government of Belize Press Office — Cabinet Brief, 29 February 2024 — the names of the three levies, the seven-day exemption, the Santa Elena, Corozal crossing
- Government of Belize Press Office — Cabinet Brief, 7 July 2025 — the five named states and the Visitor’s Digital Border Crossing Card
- Belize Immigration — Contact Us — headquarters and WhatsApp numbers, the contact form, the “currently working on updating” line
Last verified: 2026-11-07
Researched and written by Estuardo Enriquez for belizetravelblog.com, an independent site with no connection to any airport, airline, tour operator or government body.