Ellen

Article is too long to post but here are some highlights . . .

http://www.aopa.org/pilot/features/2007/feat0705.html

For general aviation, user fees and tax hikes would impose a burden on pilots amounting to $968 million annually.

Meanwhile, airlines would enjoy major cuts in their payments.

In all, the bill would reduce the "legacy airlines" (such as American, United, Delta, and Northwest) payments to the trust fund by about 27 percent, or $1.7 billion per year, compared with the current arrangement. For the low-cost carriers, such as Southwest and JetBlue, payments channeled to the government would be cut by 15 percent, or about $286 million per year.

Last, but certainly not least, the bill turns the airlines into full partners with the FAA on matters of decision making.

If this bill is passed, the administrator can levy fees and other charges by publishing them in the Federal Register. This leaves the door open to fee increases

Most of the bill's references to fees are vague

It's also safe to assume that the airlines will figure out other ways to try to make passengers bail them out of their financial difficulties. One airline has already advanced the idea of charging passengers $5 for the first checked bag — and $100 for each additional bag. (LOL!!!!)

It elevates the FAA administrator (meaning not just the administrator but also those in the administrator's inner circle, and its constellation of grasping lobbyists) to the role of unsupervised, unaccountable autocrat, with unlimited fiscal decision-making powers.

Airplanes2Win

Anyone know who came up with that brilliant customer satisfaction plan?

Ellen

MESA of course . . . .

razorseal

I thought it was gojet

HoboPilot

Hopefully our lawmakers will realize that the FAA's job is to promote air travel in America rather than scaring away its foundation with exorbitant fees. I can just see flight training being outsourced to foreign countries. Just look at Lufthansa, they fly their pilots almost halfway around the world to Arizona to train their pilots.

A question I have not seen answered is, what is so broken with the present funding system? Marion Blakey just claimed that "one hundred percent of our major capital programs are on schedule and on budget". If she's so confident that those programs are on schedule and budget, then why change the system?

Does anyone know when the user fees issue will be voted on by congress?

Ellen

http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsite...18funding.html

In short:
On February 14, the Bush Administration released its proposal for changing the funding mechanism for the Federal Aviation Administration. In short, here's what the administration proposal would do:


Raise general aviation gasoline taxes 366 percent to 70.1 cents per gallon (jet fuel is increased from 21.9 to 70.1 cents per gallon)

Allow

• the FAA to impose user fee charges on GA aircraft flying in Class B airspace
• Allow the FAA to charge landing fees at some 215 airports
• Charge the airlines user fees, instead of taxes, and reduce the amount the airlines pay to the federal government
• Create an airline-dominated board to help set user fee rates and run the air traffic control system
• Allow the FAA to set fees and spending with no recourse to Congress or the courts. (View the text of the Next Generation Air Transportation System Financing Reform Act of 2007.)

The players:
The FAA and Department of Transportation...
...want user fees to "match revenue to costs," to eliminate congressional controls on what they spend, and to charge pilots directly for FAA services.

The big airlines...
...want to shift some of the costs to support the FAA onto GA, and they want to control the air traffic control system and access to "their" airspace. (Sounds like a MONOPOLY to ME)

The White House...
...wants to take FAA funding "off budget" by charging user fees to free tax revenue for nonaviation uses. (Like funding a war that no one wants!)

General aviation...
...wants to preserve a robust aviation system that is the envy of the world and that serves all citizens, not just the wealthy.

The timeline:
Congress must take action by October 2007, as the existing authority to collect aviation taxes on fuel, passenger tickets, and air cargo waybills will expire.

HoboPilot

So where do the airlines share the burden? It seems like they're trying to muscle the FAA into helping them climb out of the holes they've dug themselves into.

Phil Boyer will be at my school this weekend giving a speech, hopefully I'll get a chance to thank him for fighting the good fight.

Ellen

Don't just thank him, ask him what you can do to help support him

HoboPilot

that's true, I'm already a sophomore AOPA member so I've been at least doing that much

I'm stuck in between residency at two states so I don't really know which congressmen to write to, guess writing to both couldnt hurt

What else is there that we can do, besides writing out congressmen, to help stop user fees?

ToiletDuck

since when did aviaiton serve everyone and not just the wealthy?