Feds Say They'll Start Collecting This Year

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a new mission -- bill collecting. The department says US airlines owe it $196 million in unpaid airport security fees, and it's going to start collecting this year.

So why haven't the airlines been paying the fees?

Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and United Air Lines are among the 26 carriers contesting the fees, calling them unfair and excessive.

AMR spokesman Tim Wagner told Bloomberg, "American Airlines believes it has presented a compelling case to the TSA that this money is not owed."

DHS created the fees after new security screening procedures were enacted following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. When the government took responsibility for screening bags and pax it based its fees on current costs to the airlines.

The Transportation Security Agency's (TSA) chief financial officer says the total owed on unpaid fees could grow to $294 million by the end of the year.

And that's not all: Like many government agencies, the TSA wants to decrease its reliance on funding via general tax revenues. To do so, it wants to increase the fees it charges for security services by 42 percent.

That would mean a $448 million per year TSA bill to US airlines.

According to Bloomberg, the TSA's FY2008 budget assumes $98 million in back-fee collections and the higher rate of $448 million. That pushes the total due from US airlines at the end of the year from the current $316 million to $546 million.

The agency claims its biggest debtors last year were Southwest, $24 million, American, $18.8 million, and Delta, $14.9 million.

Among the carriers filing protests last year were Delta, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines and US Airways.

Gee, I wish I could just say my taxes were 'unfair and excessive'...

FMI: www.dhs.gov, www.tsa.gov