San Francisco – The federal government has taken billions of dollars from the taxes and fees paid by airline passengers and awarded it to small airports – including Aspen’s Sardy Field – used mainly by private pilots and globe-trotting corporate executives.
Some of these “general aviation” facilities used the federal dollars – more than $7 billion over the past decade – for enhancements such as longer runways and passenger terminals aimed at luring traffic, an Associated Press review has found. The money comes with little oversight and is handed out at the expense of an increasingly beleaguered air-transportation system.
“They’re making out like bandits,” said Bob Poole, director of transportation studies at the Reason Foundation in California and author of several studies on air- transportation costs. “It’s not only that airline passengers are paying more than their fair share, but they’re being overtaxed to give private jets a free ride.”
Passengers pay as many as six separate taxes and fees on a single airline ticket, adding up to more than $104 billion since 1997, AP found. These assessments often are overlooked by the millions who click the “buy” button to purchase tickets online, even though they can exceed 25 percent of the total airfare.
Meanwhile, travelers face more hassles than ever. In 2006, more passengers were bumped, flights delayed and bags lost than in 2005, according to the annual Airline Quality Rating report released this month.
“What are people getting for their money?” said Kenneth Button, a professor of transportation at George Mason University’s School of Public Policy and an expert on air-transit taxation. “Delays are increasing. How can consumers make a sensible assessment on how the money is being spent? You need an abacus to figure out all the costs.”
Congress will decide this year whether to curtail the huge public subsidy for small airports as pilots associations, airport managers and other interested groups are fighting to keep it.
Ed Bolen, president of the National Business Aviation Association, which represents 8,000 operators of private jets and other aircraft, said all Americans benefit from the growth of small airports. They aid emergency preparedness and critical services such as medical evacuations and mail delivery, he noted.
Without help from the federal government in the form of passenger taxes, many would be unable to survive, Bolen said.
“Not all aircraft are the same, nor do they impose the same costs on the system,” he said. “If we were grounded tomorrow, the system would cost the same.”
Mark Cooper of the Washington-based Consumer Federation of America said the key question is whether passengers are paying for something and getting nothing in return.
“It costs me more to park my car at National Airport than it costs to park a corporate jet,” he said.
The taxes and fees finance the Federal Aviation Administration and its air-traffic-control operations, as well as passenger and baggage screening, air marshals and police presence at commercial hubs.
But hundreds of smaller airports also are among the beneficiaries. These run the gamut from remote rural airstrips serving crop-dusters and hobbyists to “executive” airports serving corporate jets and exclusive resort destinations.
Sardy Field, the Aspen/Pitkin County airport, has received $27.2 million in funding since 2005. While Aspen does offer service by major airlines, private jets and other general-aviation aircraft make up the majority of its traffic, airport officials said.
The airport closed April 9 for two months for an $11.9 million project that includes rehabilitating the runway, paving shoulders and drainage work. The airport is expected to reopen June 7.
Passenger taxes are collected in noncommercial aviation only in instances involving the fractional ownership of private jets, air charter operations and small commuter flights. Instead, noncommercial aviation contributes to America’s air-transit infrastructure in the form of a fuel tax that covers just a fraction of the services it uses.
The FAA released a study in February that said it cost $2.4 billion just to provide air-traffic control for private and corporate planes in 2005. The industry contributed $516 million in fuel taxes that year.
