Fund Fight: AOPA's Boyer Jousts With Minnesota's Governor Pawlenty | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-07.14.25

Airborne-NextGen-07.15.25

AirborneUnlimited-07.16.25

Airborne-FlightTraining-07.17.25

AirborneUnlimited-07.11.25

Mon, May 03, 2004

Fund Fight: AOPA's Boyer Jousts With Minnesota's Governor Pawlenty

AOPA: Boyer Warns Minnesota Governor Against Excessive Airport Fee Increases

AOPA President Phil Boyer gave a "heads up" warning to Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty that the growing controversy over funding of the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) reliever airports could pose serious political problems in the future.

Boyer and AOPA Vice President of Regional Affairs Roger Cohen met with Pawlenty, his top staff, and AOPA member and state Senator Mike Jungbauer (R-Anoka) (pictured below) prior to Thursday's presentation to the MAC.

"Governor Pawlenty clearly understands the issue. However, he believes that a reasonable increase may be needed but that we need a reasonable period of time to implement any changes," said Boyer. The rates have been raised only once since the early 1960s.

The Metropolitan Airports Commission, a majority of whom are Pawlenty appointees, has been under strong pressure from Northwest Airlines to alter funding of the MAC system so that general aviation users pay increased fees. Northwest's CEO, Richard Anderson, has escalated the issue nationally with an anti-GA essay in his airline's in-flight magazine which in turn led to a USA Today editorial, a traveler-friendly newspaper in which Northwest advertises heavily.

Ironically, Boyer's meeting with Pawlenty and presentation to the MAC occurred the same day Northwest announced its four top executives, including Anderson, were granted more than $6 million in new stock bonuses. At the same time the airline reported a first-quarter loss of some $236 million.

"Our 8,000 Minnesota members need to continue to make their voices heard, particularly with the MAC and Gov. Pawlenty," said Boyer. "Northwest will keep pushing political buttons locally and, as we've seen, on a national level. But AOPA will not allow Northwest - or any other airline - to dictate the future of general aviation."

FMI: www.aopa.org

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (07.15.25): Charted Visual Flight Procedure Approach

Charted Visual Flight Procedure Approach An approach conducted while operating on an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan which authorizes the pilot of an aircraft to proceed >[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (07.15.25)

“When l became the Secretary of Defense, I committed to rebuild our military to match threats to capabilities. Drones are the biggest battlefield innovation in a generation, >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (07.15.25)

Aero Linx: Stearman Restorers Association Welcome to the Stearman Restorers Association. The Stearman Restorers Association is an independent “Not for Profit” 501C-3 Co>[...]

NTSB Final Report: Kjelsrud Gary Kitfox

Airplane Exhibited A Partial Loss Of Engine Power When It Was About Halfway Down The Runway Analysis: The pilot of the experimental amateur-built airplane was departing from his pr>[...]

NTSB Prelim: Cessna A150L

The Flight Path Was Consistent With Low-Altitude Maneuvering On June 18, 2025, about 0922 mountain standard time, a Cessna A150L airplane, N6436F, was substantially damaged when it>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC