REALITY - The airlines’ FAA bill would CUT funding by at least $600 million.   

 

MYTH - Passengers will benefit from the big airlines’ tax break.

REALITY - History shows the airlines will pocket the tax break and keep fares high. The U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the last two times aviation taxes expired, the airlines actually raised fares. In December 2006, a senior airline executive told a major newspaper that if their passenger tax expired, “…we could keep fares the same and make more money.”  

 

MYTH - All airplanes place the same costs on the system.

REALITY - The big airlines want you to believe that a 4 passenger turboprop and a 400 passenger 747 impose the same cost on the system and should pay the same amount in taxes. The U.S. Government Accountability Office has twice concluded that the commercial airlines drive the FAA’s costs through their hubbing operations at congested airports.

 

In addition, the idea that every user should pay the same amount into the system has been rejected by every international government, and the International Civil Aviation Organization has specifically rejected this idea in its user fee charging guidelines. 

 

MYTH - General aviation causes delays for commercial carriers.

REALITY - The top reasons for airline delays, according to the Department of Transportation, are extreme weather, security, late-arriving aircraft and airline-related problems. General aviation does not cause delays to commercial aviation, because general aviation aircraft tend to fly at altitudes above and below commercial airline traffic. Additionally, because general aviation aircraft tend to use different airports, they account for less than 5 percent of total operations at the nation’s 20 busiest commercial airports.

 

MYTH - User fees are not the first step to an airline takeover of the air traffic control system.

REALITY - According to user fee advocate Bob Poole, user fees are the “essential precondition for commercialization.”

 

MYTH - User fees promote a more efficient, business-like FAA.

REALITY - User fees promote bureaucracy and would dilute the FAA’s focus on safety. The current pay-at-the pump system of fuel and ticket taxes requires virtually no administration, maximizing revenue and minimizing bureaucratic drag. But under a user fees system, the FAA would have to hire collection agents, auditors, dispute resolution officers and troops of administrators just to assess and collect fees. The FAA should keep its focus on safety and not be distracted by revenue-collection responsibilities.