16h
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
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16h
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).
14h
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.
14h
14h
▶ RtrdCtrl
They’re listed in the link in the article
