Originally Posted by
FlyJSH
So what is everyone's opinion on user fees???
The ATA has a point that the cost of handling an IFR flight has nothing to do with the amount of fuel burned (which is how fees are charged today). The cost is determined mostly by how long the aircraft is in the system...but a light plane that spends two hours in a busy tracon (like socal) requires more effort (and $) than an airliner that spends 2 hours on a center freq.
On the other hand, much of the airspace and ATC systems we have in place were designed to protect airliners, mostly from each other so I suspect that it would be unfair to charge light GA extra to fly in a system that most of them don't really need anyway. And GA was here first...
Bizjets are another story...they operate like airliners and need similar handling so maybe there should be a usage fee for flight-level operations.