Letter To President Obama Outlines Why $100-Per-Flight Fee Could Devastate The Recreational Parachute Industry

On April 11, one day after President Obama unveiled his 2014 budget containing a new $100 per flight user fee, USPA wrote to the President explaining how such a fee would devastate businesses that operate skydiving airplanes.

The new fee would apply to each flight by a turbine aircraft in controlled airspace. “It is clear that no one within the administration understands that turbine jump planes routinely make up to 25 flights per day. An operator with one turbine airplane could pay $2,500 each day in user fees; an operator with two aircraft could pay $5,000 each day,” said Ed Scott, USPA’s Executive Director. USPA pointed out that those same operators already pay between $158 and $263 per aircraft per day in federal fuel taxes on jet fuel.

USPA described a new user fee as “inequitable, duplicative and (requiring) a new, costly bureaucratic process to assess and collect the fee.”

"Obviously, no business can survive new daily fees that run into the thousands of dollars," Scott said in the letter. "We respectfully request that you withdraw your aviation user fee proposal."

Many Members of Congress already oppose aviation user fees, so the administration has a high hurdle to clear to get a bill through Congress. However, USPA and skydiving businesses need to take action now, rather than counting on Congress to defeat the proposed tax.

FMI: www.uspa.org