WASHINGTON — U.S. aviation officials have no legal authority to auction off takeoff and landing slots at airports, a scheme the government devised to try to curb crippling traffic jams at major airports, congressional investigators say.
The letter from the Government Accountability Office comes amid a legal fight among airlines, airport operators and the Federal Aviation Administration over the Bush administration’s plan to trim flight delays by auctioning off slots at New York City-area airports.
The legal opinion is another blow to Bush administration officials who hope to get their air-traffic experiment off the ground before they leave office in four months.
“We conclude that FAA may not auction slots under its property disposition authority, user fee authority, or any other authority, and thus also may not retain or use proceeds of any such auctions,” GAO general counsel Gary Kepplinger wrote to lawmakers who had sought the legal opinion.
The GAO’s top lawyer concluded that for the first time in 40 years, the FAA claims it may assign airspace as its “property,” but the laws covering the FAA were never written to include such a definition of property.
Transportation Department spokesman Brian Turmail said the GAO was unfamiliar with aviation law and had little time to study it before reaching its conclusion.
