8 replies
December 2024

kent.misegades

And just where does the Aviation and Airport Trust Fund get its money? Taxpayers. These “groups” are nothing more than K-street Lobbies, Swamp Dwellers, who aren’t the least bit interested in less spending on aviation but more gravy train. Privatization is also not the answer unless one starts from a clean sheet and government stays out of the way. Why not charge user fees, provided all other forms of taxation on aviation ends. Including the very high fees that double the cost of an airline ticket. As long as most airports are owned by government, I see no chance for lowering costs to GA or airline travellers. No wonder that there is a strong migration of Sport Aviation away from government airports and onto private airfields. And renewed interest in ultralights that are nearly 100% free of government meddling. That is where I predict we will see real innovation in the coming years.
“Liberty is always freedom from the government.” Ludwig von Mises

2 replies
December 2024

gmbfly98

It’s actually a “user fee”. From the FAA’s website, “The Trust Fund provides the primary source of funding for FAA and receives revenues principally from a variety of excise taxes paid by users of the National Airspace System. The excise taxes are imposed on domestic passenger tickets, domestic flight segments, and international passenger arrivals and departures, and on purchases of air travel miles for frequent flyer and similar programs. In addition, taxes are imposed on air cargo waybills and aviation fuel purchases”.

So this money should go to only aviation and not get cominigled with the general funds.

I’m not sure how you expect user fees to not add a lot to airline ticket prices. The airlines are the biggest user of ATC and airport services, so they’re going to pay the most into the system. But you can bet they aren’t going to eat those costs themselves; they’re going to pass those costs directly onto their passengers (who are really the true “users” of the system).

December 2024

hmltnrgr1

Fertile ground for a review of possible improvements. If attention is also paid to the woefully understaffed & sclerotic AeroMedical Division we’ll all be better served.

December 2024

RtrdCtrl

List the 30 groups please.

2 replies
December 2024 ▶ RtrdCtrl

gmbfly98

They’re listed in the link in the article

December 2024 ▶ RtrdCtrl

Raf

A consortium of 33, not 30.

“The undersigned organizations, representing our nation’s aviation and aerospace sector, are writing to express our continued support for ensuring America has a safe, resilient, and modernized air traffic control (ATC) system.”

  1. Aeronautical Repair Station Association
  2. Aerospace Industries Association
  3. Air Line Pilots Association, International
  4. Air Traffic Control Association
  5. Aircraft Electronics Association
  6. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
  7. Airlines for America
  8. Association of Flight Attendants-CWA
  9. Allied Pilots Association
  10. American Association of Airport Executives
  11. Association of Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International
  12. Aviation Technical Education Council
  13. Cargo Airline Association
  14. Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations
  15. Experimental Aircraft Association Inc.
  16. General Aviation Manufacturers Association
  17. Global Business Travel Association
  18. International Air Transport Association
  19. International Council of Air Shows
  20. National Air Carrier Association
  21. National Air Traffic Controllers Association
  22. National Air Transportation Association
  23. National Agricultural Aviation Association
  24. National Association of State Aviation Officials
  25. National Business Aviation Association
  26. NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots
  27. Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, AFLCIO
  28. Regional Airline Association
  29. Southwest Airlines Pilot Association
  30. Travelers United
  31. U.S. Travel Association
  32. Vertical Aviation International
  33. Vertical Flight Society
December 2024

Bill_B

All well and good if they work together with DOGE and not against it.

December 2024 ▶ kent.misegades

RationalityKeith

User pay should be considered.

But what are the fees you say double cost of airline ticket? I thought they were for operating the airports.
(BTW, you’d have to explain ‘double’ to me if I wanted to spend the time, I’ll just assume math failure.)

In general, transition needs to be planned in steps, education of public part of that. Years ago I encountered a person running a small training operation for flying what I think were called ultralights in Canada. Nice person it seemed but in a short conversation i discovered she knew nothing about maintenance despite her type of machine falling out of the air because of structural problems such as wear of single lug holding wing load cables to fuselage.