Aviation Interests Take Their Financing Disagreement to a New Plane
Commercial airlines and their general aviation foes have taken a new tack in their ongoing feud over financing air traffic control system upgrades: appealing directly to passengers.
With the peak summer travel season in full swing, both sides have shifted their lobbying efforts from Capitol Hill to the nation's crowded airports, where dueling ads on terminal television sets bid for the sympathies of grumpy travelers.
The airlines and general aviation stakeholders have been scrapping for the past year over who should pay more of the cost of modernizing the nation's air traffic control system.
Proposals to help pay for the transition to a satellite-based system by establishing new user fees are being debated as part of legislation that would reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (S 1300, HR 2881).
Although the schedule for considering the measure on the floor keeps slipping -- a senior Senate Democratic aide confirmed Monday that it will not be on the Senate floor until September at the earliest -- both sides are ratcheting up their rhetoric as they seek to lay the blame for air travel delays at one another's feet.
General aviation interests, which stand to pay more under most user fee proposals, say the current system of excise and ticket taxes works fine and that user fees proposed in an administration-backed bill (HR 1356) amount to corporate welfare for airlines.
Airlines argue that retaining the current system unfairly requires them to pay more of the total cost of air traffic control, compared with general aviation.
Dueling DepictionsThe Air Transport Association (ATA), the major airlines' trade group, is running ads on CNN's special airport news network, which is broadcast in airport terminals throughout the country. One cartoon ad depicts several long-suffering passenger jets backed up behind a small, arrogant corporate airplane that cuts to the front of the line.
The Alliance for Aviation Across America, an umbrella group of disparate general aviation, rural and agricultural interests, has countered with an ad that typically runs in airports alongside the ATA's, as well as print ads depicting commercial airlines as corporate sharks circling the Capitol waiting for a handout.
The scrapping between the two sides also spilled out into a press-release war centered around the Fourth of July travel holiday, which is always particularly busy.
On July 2, the ATA issued a press release asking the FAA to impose certain flight limits in New York City-area airspace, and suggested that corporate jets would cause too much congestion otherwise.
The National Business Aviation Association, which represents businesses that own airplanes, responded with a press release presenting statistics to rebut the ATA's claim and suggesting that the airlines were fishing for a tax break.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in both chambers continue to press the leadership for floor time as they wait for the respective tax-writing committees -- Senate Finance and House Ways and Means -- to draft their portion of the reauthorization bill that deals with fuel taxes.
The administration proposal would reduce jet fuel taxes for commercial airlines by almost half, to 13 cents a gallon, while almost tripling the fuel tax on general aviation, to 70 cents per gallon. The plan also would scrap the tax on airline tickets in favor of a per-flight fee levied on airlines that would be based on a plane's size.
But floor time in both chambers is scarce, particularly with appropriations season in full swing, and many stakeholders have begun girding themselves for the possibility of an extension at the end of September, when the current authorization expires (PL 108-176).
One aviation lobbyist said he believes it remains possible for the measure to pass the House before August, but the longer it takes Ways and Means to act, the less likely that becomes.
"You can't get the FAA bill done on the suspension calendar," the lobbyist said. "So they've got to go and get regular floor time. You start running out of days pretty quickly here if you don't get Ways and Means signed off."
Ways and Means did not return calls seeking comment.
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