With jet fuel prices soaring in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, U.S. airlines have asked Congress and the White House for $600 million in tax relief.
Commercial airlines, which have been battered, and in some cases bankrupted, by high energy costs are seeking a one-year reprieve from the 4.3-cents-per-gallon federal tax on jet fuel.
"We've discussed it with the Department of Transportation and folks on the Hill," said Jack Evans, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a Washington-based trade group. "I think, so far, people have been receptive."
The group's president, James May, will formally present the proposal at a Senate hearing scheduled for next Wednesday, Evans said.
U.S. airlines have lost in excess of $30 billion over the past four years, partly because of competition from low-cost carriers and the economic downturn, but also because of high energy costs.
The average spot price of jet fuel is now about $2.12 a gallon in New York, up from $1.27 a year ago. Prices have been rising all year, but they took a big jump after Katrina, which shut down pipelines and refineries and caused supplies to tighten.
