Budget Debate Heats Up as Airports Meet

SAN DIEGO -- Money, money, money  that's what is on the minds of airports and aviation these days. The Bush Administration is calling for more than $700 million in cuts from the authorized level for the Airport Improvement Program for FY07, which begins October 1. At the same time, after FY07, nothing is authorized by Congress regarding aviation spending; thus, a concurrent debate is ensuing on how to fund the system in the future and at what levels. This is the central focus as airports from around the country meet this week in San Diego for the annual convention of the American Association of Airport Executives. Kate Lang, deputy administrator for airports for FAA, was an opening day speaker at this year's event and she tells airports the time has come to ask the tough questions. In particular, she questions whether or not many of the programs which FAA administers to airports are still needed or need to be rethought. To wit, do we still need the list of subsidies created after 9/11, including : should the local match for AIP go back to 10 percent from the current 5 percent? primary airports that saw dramatic drops in passenger counts after 9/11 have been getting grants; now that traffic is back up, are these still necessary? is the Military Airport Program, intended to help convert military airfields to civilian use, still a good idea? noise set-asides? and with general aviation, since GA facilities vary in size and scope (Teterboro versus an airport with ten based aircraft), should the $150,000 entitlement program be rethought and distributed more based on demand? Kate has other questions but says, I think we can do a lot with the money we have.  She thinks airports should do some hard thinking when it comes to how that money is spent. Seems like a reasonable request. More from the show later this week. Thanks for reading.