Airlines Drop User Fee Demand

[blueridge71]

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]From AOPA:[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]AIRLINES DROP USER FEE DEMAND
It was a startling turnaround. The airlines abandoned their demand for user fees and their "blip is a blip" contention that all aircraft impose the same costs on the air traffic control system during a hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee on July 19. All that was left was their demand that they pay less and general aviation pay more. Delta Airlines COO James Whitehurst, speaking for the Air Transport Association (ATA, which represents most of the nation's airlines), proposed a new ticket tax that would include a fixed departure tax per passenger, plus a per passenger tax based on distance traveled. "It's not a user fee," Whitehurst said. "Implicit in the ATA proposal is the acknowledgment that it is the number of people in the aircraft that contributes significantly to air traffic control system costs, and it's those people—not the aircraft—that benefit from ATC services," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "A blip is not a blip." See AOPA Online.[/FONT]

 

[Wankel7]

SWEET! That is good news indeed!

 

[jtf]

What are they still looking for? They have quite a few who lobby for them and they seem to love to lobby for themselves in their on board magazines. They must have an idea of some other point to screw GA that they think they can obtain. I'm most afraid of the Airlines getting control of the FAA funding system like they were stressing in the initial bill.

 

[bailey3083]

What are they still looking for? They have quite a few who lobby for them and they seem to love to lobby for themselves in their on board magazines. They must have an idea of some other point to screw GA that they think they can obtain. I'm most afraid of the Airlines getting control of the FAA funding system like they were stressing in the initial bill.

They dropped the user fees but want to tack on 61 cents per gallon tax to pay for the ATC system. I am guessing that the airlines do not realize on average we already pay 32 cents per gallon just in federal taxes not including local and state taxes. Or they do not realize in SMO the other day we paid $6.12/gallon for Jet A with $2 bucks of that just in taxes.
So just before Congress went on vacation they pass a bill that would leave the current revenue system intact but had a sunset of 2009 to 1) Have a PLAN to bring the ATC system in line with current technologies 2) To figure out an new tax system that would spread the cost of updating and maintaining the ATC system 3) Finally ATC has to be modernized by 2015. Bush has said he would veto the bill and send it back to Committee.

Bailey

 

[Nolife]

Bush has said he would veto the bill and send it back to Committee.
Bailey

Of course... because it wouldn't be friendly to big business and it makes sense.