20 October 2006
US General Aviation business leaders meeting at the NBAA (National Business Aviation Association) Convention in Orlando have made it absolutely clear: general aviation is under threat from the user fees system.
The airlines are calling for $2 billion – costs for use of the air traffic control system – to be shifted onto general aviation (actually, onto business aviation, but all present felt that sooner or later, general aviation would be bracketed in with this, too).
NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen said: “Business aviation is under attack from the commercial airlines. The airlines want to pay less and control more. Their endgame is airline control of the ATC system.”
Bolen also questioned the airlines’ motives. They have, he says, changed their stance several times, but suggested that the current – possibly most damaging – motive is VLJ fearmongering. VLJs (Very Light Jets) are likely to become widespread in the next few years, and may eat into the airlines’ traditional business.
It was agreed that the airlines’ move was an attempt to assert control over the ATC system. EAA President Tom Poberezny asked: “If they shift $2 billion in fees, do you think they will lower ticket prices?” James Coyne, President of NATA (National Air Transportation Association) said it was a “competitive use of pricing to defeat a competitor.”
The GA leaders agreed that they preferred the current system of fuel taxes as the best way of getting GA to pay for the system; however, Andrew Cebula, AOPA’s executive vice president of government affairs, said he’d be amazed if the FAA’s next budget proposal didn’t include user fees.
<a href=’http://web.nbaa.org/public/cs/amc/2006/articles/userfees.php’ target=’_blank’>Report from NBAA</a>
