A proposal within the White House's fiscal year 2008 budget for user fees at airports nationwide has spurred national aviation groups into action.
“We expect support to oppose this from aviation businesses like those in Alaska, whose communities depend on commercial air service,” said Steve Brown, vice president of operations for the National Business Aviation Association. “This draconian proposal will drive up costs to the operators and passengers alike.”
The president's budget proposes fees for all aircraft flying through congested airspace, increased fees to commercial operators, lodge owners and on-demand charters in the form of increased fuel taxes, landing and take-off fees, and charges to fractional aircraft owners who lease or own aircraft used for business.
The National Business Aviation Association, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Experimental Aircraft Association, and a consortium of other groups have all voiced their opposition to the budget proposal.
“The general aviation community has long stood at the forefront of efforts to transform the nation's aviation system to meet the needs of the future,” said Ed Bolen, president and chief executive officer of the National Business Aviation Association, in a written statement.
“We will continue to work with the (Federal Aviation Administration) to make the next-generation aviation system a reality. But it appears that, after more than a year of intense lobbying by the nation's big airlines, the White House has decided to introduce a budget that shifts airline costs to other segments of the industry and gives airlines more control over the air traffic system.”
In Alaska, the Alaska Airmen's Association was not aware of the budget proposal and would not comment on the issue.
The federal Department of Transportation budget, offered by the president, includes the FAA allotment of $175 million for a satellite navigation system to replace older air traffic control equipment, and $900 million in additional air traffic control system upgrades. But the budget also has a user-fee proposal.
The administration will transmit a reauthorization proposal in 2007 that transforms the FAA's excise tax financing system to a cost-based system that recovers most of costs of air traffic services through user fees.
The document released by the White House states, “under the proposal, FAA's financing sources shift from a mix of fuel taxes, other excise taxes, and general fund contributions to user fees, fuel taxes, and a general fund contribution.”
The FAA would have the authority to collect the user fees that directly offset the cost its operations. Expenditure of the available fees would be affirmed in the appropriations process.
Air traffic user fees would be collected from commercial aviation operators. General aviation users would continue to pay a fuel tax that would be deposited into the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. Fuel tax rates will be calibrated based on the costs that these users impose on the system.
The administration's budget proposal, however, says the fees will distribute the costs of managing airspace in a more equitable fashion.
“Under the existing aviation tax structure, there is no relationship between the taxes paid by users and the air traffic control services rendered by the FAA,” the proposal states. “For example, when a full plane flies from New York to Boston, it imposes the same workload on the FAA as when a less crowded plane of the same size travels the same route. However, since the current tax structure is primarily based on the price of a ticket, the full plane pays much more in taxes than the less crowded plane.”
The proposal says that user fees will allow commercial aviation users to pay directly for the services that FAA provides. According to the proposal, aviation users would pay a total of $11.5 billion in user fees and fuel taxes in 2008, while under the current tax structure, aviation users would pay $12.1 billion in excise and fuel taxes.
The proposal says a more direct relationship between user fees collected and services received will create incentives to make the system more responsive to user needs and more efficient.
The National Business Aviation Association, however, sees the proposal as an affront to small businesses and rural communities.
“We are confident that the tens of thousands of small and mid-size businesses that rely on general aviation will have support from those who oppose new government bureaucracies and care about small and rural communities without good access to airline service,” Bolen said in a written statement. “NBAA and the rest of the general aviation community will oppose this toxic mix of higher taxes, new fees and airline control. The fact is, the current approach to funding and oversight of the aviation system is effective and efficient — there is no need for radical 'fixes' like those proposed in this budget.”
If Congress passes the budget with the proposed fees, they will go into effect in October 2008.
Web resources: Proposed DOT budget: www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/
fy2008/pdf/appendix/dot.pdf
National Business Aviation Association: www.nbaa.org.
Rob Stapleton can be reached at rob.stapleton@alaskajournal.com.
