Proposes $100 Fee Per Flight For BizPlanes using Controlled Airspace

News/Analysis By J. R. Campbell, CEO/Editor-In-Chief

Folks with greater insight into the mindset of the bizarre critters that inhabit our government will have more to say in the next few hours, but ANN is inspecting portions of the President's convoluted 'Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction' and we've gotten one hell of a shock.

Those aviation-hating folks in OUR government are attacking us again.

Deep within the 80 page plan, listed under the heading 'More Equitably Share Payments For Air Traffic Services,' the following is proposed -- "Roughly two-thirds of the air traffic control system’s current costs are financed by aviation excise taxes. Most of the tax revenue is collected from commercial aviation through ticket taxes, segment fees, international head taxes, and fuel taxes. General aviation users currently pay a fuel tax, but this revenue does not cover their fair-share-use of air traffic services. All flights that use controlled air space require a similar level of air traffic services. However, commercial and general aviation can pay very different aviation fees for those same air traffic services. For example, a large commercial aircraft would pay between $1,300 to $2,000 in taxes for a flight from Los Angles to San Francisco while a corporate jet flying the same route and using the same Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic services would pay about $60 in taxes.

To reduce the deficit and more equitably share the cost of air traffic services across the aviation user community, the Administration proposes to establish a new mandatory surcharge for air traffic services. This proposal would create a $100 per flight fee, payable to the FAA, by aviation operators who fly in controlled airspace. Military aircraft, public aircraft, recreational piston aircraft, air ambulances, aircraft operating outside of controlled airspace, and Canada-to-Canada flights would be exempted. The revenues generated by the surcharge would be deposited into the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. This fee would generate an estimated $11 billion over 10 years. Assuming the enactment of the fee, total charges collected from aviation users would finance roughly three fourths of airport investments and air traffic control system costs."

The document also promises changes to the airline fees one pays for various security programs... which should get the attention of the airline industry in a very big way.

We'll have much more to follow as this document receives additional analysis, but if there was EVER any doubt that this Administration means to target aviation in its quest for yet more money from those who use aviation to keep their lives and business moving, then it is now inextricably erased. God help us...

FMI: www.whitehouse.gov, www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/jointcommitteereport.pdf