cheap flights, big taxes

Since we relocated to Hungary, I am amazed by how cheap traveling can be from this part of the world.  There are so many budget airlines and so many promos from travel agencies! Traveling overseas from Japan or the Philippines was so much more expensive in comparison, although this too may be changing as our bargain hunting friend, who recently found a cheap flight from Osaka to Manila via Cebu Pacific, learned to our amazement.

But what I noticed is that the tax that you have to pay on top of the airfare that budget airlines offer is often as much, and sometimes, more than the airfare itself.  So, you often end up paying double the amount advertised by the airlines or the travel agencies that make use of these airlines.  

Which makes me wonder: is this why Europeans seem indifferent to the economic consequences of their taking a lot of vacations (not that I myself care, but a Filipino friend studying in Switzerland is complaining that their department clerk is always on vacation and never seem to be really working)? (Their governments are getting taxes anyway, so the heck with labor productivity!)

Because of the big taxes on cheap flights, it is even cheaper to travel by bus.  In fact, I am now ignoring the budget airlines altogether and concentrating on the bus tours to Eastern Europe because there is no airport tax.  This may even be better for the environment as planes consume more gas, or is it so?