FAA user fees

[BenderGonzales]

There is more to aviation that just airline jobs:
Corporate (how many Lears and other light jets are out there?)
On demand freight
135

Not every one of these companies would be able to absorb user fees. Thousands of jobs would be lost.

 

[A Squared]

They don't have to convince the little old lady from Ipanema that they are as safe as Amtrak or Greyhound.

OK, this is wrong in so many ways. First off, Ipanema is a long way from the US. It's a district in Rio de Janerio, one the areas next to the beach (the next beach down from Copacabana) The popular reference is not a little old lady from Ipanema. It's the *girl* from Ipanema, it was the title of a popular song, it was about a hottie that walked down to the beach every day and left the locals standing there drooling with thier tounges henging out ... not a little old lady at all. There really was a "girl from Ipanema" and she appered in the Brazilian edition of Playboy twice.

 

[Alamanach]

OK, this is wrong in so many ways. First off, Ipanema is a long way from the US. It's a district in Rio de Janerio, one the areas next to the beach (the next beach down from Copacabana) The popular reference is not a little old lady from Ipanema. It's the *girl* from Ipanema, it was the title of a popular song, it was about a hottie that walked down to the beach every day and left the locals standing there drooling with thier tounges henging out ... not a little old lady at all. There really was a "girl from Ipanema" and she appered in the Brazilian edition of Playboy twice.

And her name was Heloise Pinero, and she was 19 when she inspired the song, and she owns a boutique in southern California, and I knew all this already (Getz Gilberto is one of my favorite albums), and now you're the second person on this thread to catch me in a dumb mistake. :0

(Of course, with my batting average so far, I've probably gone and misspelled her name or something.)

Thanks for the correction. I think I'll go sit quietly in the corner for a little while...

 

[finnjl]

If this passes it will be the end of general aviation. Aviation will be untouchable to all but the very wealthy. Fractionals will go away. Companies will sell their corporate jet. Airline management will smile all the way to the bank with their fat bonus. They are the folks pushing for this.

 

[finnjl]

Good and when they ignore your letter and pass the bill anyway make sure you get that bank account ready. We won't be more like europe, this is called pulling your own weight. Time for the GA guys to help pay what the airlines have been paying for years. The taxes are out of whack and its time to correct that. If you don't wanna pay to play then don't try and use up the airspace when you don't need to. Fly VFR and save yourself the headaches.

Ok that is fare. I am more concerned of the general aviation fuel tax. I think the airlines should pay the tax as well. They do not in the proposal. But, the airlines do not pay for these services every passenger does in the ticket tax, which as around 5 bucks in every ticket sold.

 

[svcta]

No matter what you charge the airlines, Do you honestly believe the airlines will pay for it out of their own revenue? Of course not, so it comes down to the tax payer getting the shaft once again. Airline tickets will go up, (due to additional fees passed from the airlines to the passenger) and once again, I'll get stuck paying the bill.

You are under the mistaken belief that air travel is something more than an option for you to get from "A" to "B". If you can't afford it take the train, bus, drive yourself, or don't go. Taking the airlines is not a god-given right. Or any other kind of right for that matter. It was even more expensive in the past.

 

[cessna_driver2]

You are under the mistaken belief that air travel is something more than an option for you to get from "A" to "B". If you can't afford it take the train, bus, drive yourself, or don't go. Taking the airlines is not a god-given right. Or any other kind of right for that matter. It was even more expensive in the past.

I never once said the airlines were a god-given right. In fact the only time I fly the airlines is when work sends me out or when I can't drive it in 24 hours or less.

What does bother me more is how the airlines are using the millions of dollars (taxpayers and front line employees have sacraficed while they retain their bonuses & hefty pay) to take control of something that should never be in anyone private company. The national airspace system is too important to remove government oversight and control. It also bothers me is the story that the FAA & airlines cooked up saying it would be to the benefit of everyone. ATC is already benefits the airlines. We all see how much more control they want!

Almost all other freedoms have been given away for a false sense of security. Lets not let this last freedom slip through out graps.

 

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

In the end, we all will lose... I just hope everyone understands what is really happening.

Sums it up. If they implement user fees and GA folks drastically decrease their flying then the government will have to tax something else (the airline pax?) to make up for the "lost" tax revenue. Kind of like smoking...if they ban it all together then they'll have to find another way to make up the lost taxes. Politicians are addicted to money.

 

[time builder]

http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/transcripts/070307b/index.html

President Bush Offers Ways To Ease Air Traffic Gridlock

Wednesday, March 07, 2007
SUSIE GHARIB: Anyone who's been to an airport lately will tell you the skies are crowded and the delays seem to be getting worse. To cope with the congestion, the Bush administration wants to rewrite the rules on who pays to support the air traffic control system. Congress takes up that issue tomorrow. Darren Gersh has a preview.
DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: They call them very light jets, small enough and cheap enough, your dentist might be able to buy one. Three thousand are expected to roll off manufacturing lines over the next decade. Add to that as many as 5,000 new business jets and a few thousand new commercial jet liners and there will soon be a lot more blips on air traffic control radar screens across the country. Jim May says that's the problem. May lobbies for the nation's airlines in Washington.
JIM MAY, CEO, AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION: A blip is a blip is a blip, from the perspective of the air traffic controller. The air traffic controller doesn't care whether it's a VLJ, a Citation 10, a 737. What they care about is the fact that it takes them as much time and energy to control each of those planes.
GERSH: Right now, all those blips do not pay the same amount to support the air traffic control system. Ticket taxes and other fees on airlines and their passengers fund more than 90 percent of it. But the Federal Aviation Administration figures those airlines account for 73 percent of the system's costs. The Bush administration wants to change that by tripling fuel taxes on corporate jets and private planes. At the National Business Aviation Association, Ed Bolen says his members use smaller, less crowed airports. And they are now being asked to pay for the congestion and costs caused by commercial jetliners.
ED BOLEN, CEO, NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION: So the airlines goal of having all airplanes pay the same, whether they have three passengers, 30 passengers or 300 passengers, is just not viable in the aviation world. It's been rejected and it doesn't make sense, if you look at airline economics.
GERSH: The FAA says it needs more reliable funding in order to replace its old radar system with more advanced satellite navigation. But aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia says Congress will have some tough questions for the FAA.
RICHARD ABOULAFIA, VICE PRESIDENT, TEAL GROUP: Does the expansion need to happen along the lines forecasted by the FAA and if it does, who pays? Is it the airline community or is it the private aviation community?
GERSH: For now, this battle has taken place under the radar, but it is expected to turn into one of the year's toughest lobbying contests, pitting airlines and their passengers against business executives and hundreds of thousands of private pilots. Darren Gersh, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Washington.