Wed, Mar 14, 2007
Av-Security Funds Going Towards Rail, Marine Safety
"Skyway robbery." That's what the CEO of the International Air
Transport Association calls the high rent fees and security charges
that airlines and passengers alike pay at Canadian airports.
In his speech to attendees at a Vancouver Board of Trade
luncheon this week, IATA's Giovanni Bisignani noted the Canadian
government collected $1.2 billion in security fees between 2002 and
2005.
Of those charges, only $800 million has gone toward airport
security, Bisignani asserts. Some of the remaining money has gone
towards funding security efforts for marine and rail travel, as
well as for public transportation -- an example of subsidizing he
believes is unfair.
"I will be polite and characterize this skyway robbery as very
unfair to the passengers," Bisignani said, according to CBC
News.
The IATA chief also
states that according to the Canadian Airports Council, the
government will receive an additional $290 million in airport rent
taxes in 2007. Those fees -- which are passed along to airlines, in
the form of higher landing fees, which are then passed down to
passengers -- are among the highest such charges in the world.
Only Peru and Ecuador levy similarly high fees, Bisignani
said.
The airports also have reason to complain where their money is
going. The Greater Toronto Airport Authority said it paid $151.8
million in rent to the Canadian government in 2006 -- but none of
those funds was reinvested in the airport.
Not surprisingly, the GTAA is asking the government to ease up
on its charges.
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