FAA user fees

[Scott[_5_]]

My AOPA renewal notice included another one of those blurbs about user fees.
Increased fuel tax, flight fees for turbines, etc. I wanted to throw out a
couple of questions....

What if ATC fees were limited to revenue flights, regardless of engine type?
Would dual instruction flights be included?

What if fees were proportional to the number of souls on board, or to the
aircraft's (net or gross) takeoff weight?

Also...is it true that airlines don't pay tax on jet fuel? If so, why has
nobody nominated changing that as a way of funding ATC? After all, it's the
airlines that reap the greatest benefit from ATC, not GA.

I know, the answer is always "the airline lobby." My idealism wants my
cynicism to be wrong this time.

-Scott

[Slug]

Scott wrote:
> My AOPA renewal notice included another one of those blurbs about user fees.
> Increased fuel tax, flight fees for turbines, etc. I wanted to throw out a
> couple of questions....
>
> What if ATC fees were limited to revenue flights, regardless of engine type?
> Would dual instruction flights be included?
>
> What if fees were proportional to the number of souls on board, or to the
> aircraft's (net or gross) takeoff weight?
>
> Also...is it true that airlines don't pay tax on jet fuel? If so, why has
> nobody nominated changing that as a way of funding ATC? After all, it's the
> airlines that reap the greatest benefit from ATC, not GA.
>
> I know, the answer is always "the airline lobby." My idealism wants my
> cynicism to be wrong this time.
>
> -Scott

You rich white people who fly their own planes must pay for
the expanding FAA civil rights staffs. Also don't forget
those FAA "Diversity" a.k.a. "Kissing the Black Ass"
conferences in Las Vegas on the FAA tax dime. Don't you know
social engineering supersedes aviation safety in the "new" FAA?

So, cough it up white boy.

[BT]

The airlines are behind the push to put USER FEES on General Aviation. Why
would they push to tax their own fuel?
The Airlines will say that they pay their share.. they don't. Every ticket
they sell includes a $10 fee that is passed from the customer to the Govt.
But the airlines won't tell their passengers that is where the dollars are
coming from to that they claim to have to pay.

B

"Scott" > wrote in message
news:4788eb10.869128050@localhost...
> My AOPA renewal notice included another one of those blurbs about user
> fees.
> Increased fuel tax, flight fees for turbines, etc. I wanted to throw out
> a
> couple of questions....
>
> What if ATC fees were limited to revenue flights, regardless of engine
> type?
> Would dual instruction flights be included?
>
> What if fees were proportional to the number of souls on board, or to the
> aircraft's (net or gross) takeoff weight?
>
> Also...is it true that airlines don't pay tax on jet fuel? If so, why has
> nobody nominated changing that as a way of funding ATC? After all, it's
> the
> airlines that reap the greatest benefit from ATC, not GA.
>
> I know, the answer is always "the airline lobby." My idealism wants my
> cynicism to be wrong this time.
>
> -Scott

[Marissa Reichert]

BT wrote:

> The airlines are behind the push to put USER FEES on General Aviation. Why
> would they push to tax their own fuel?
> The Airlines will say that they pay their share.. they don't. Every ticket
> they sell includes a $10 fee that is passed from the customer to the Govt.
> But the airlines won't tell their passengers that is where the dollars are
> coming from to that they claim to have to pay.

I don't know where you got your $10 flat fee, but it is not correct. Most (US)
Airline passengers contribute 7.5% of their ticket price into the Airport &
Airway Trust Fund, which pays for facility improvements, navigation aids, and
some operational costs. This is in addition to the segment tax, which is $3.40
everytime you take off or land as a passenger. Rural passengers instead pay a
7.5% rural airport tax, which funds service to underserved airports. In
addition there are local facility charges (capped at $4.50 per leg) that go
directly to the local airport (presumably to use as the "local" portion of
improvements, for example in a 90%/10% local funding for a new runway, etc).

[Marissa Reichert]

Scott wrote:

> My AOPA renewal notice included another one of those blurbs about user fees.
> Increased fuel tax, flight fees for turbines, etc. I wanted to throw out a
> couple of questions....
>
> What if ATC fees were limited to revenue flights, regardless of engine type?
> Would dual instruction flights be included?
>
> What if fees were proportional to the number of souls on board, or to the
> aircraft's (net or gross) takeoff weight?
>
> Also...is it true that airlines don't pay tax on jet fuel? If so, why has
> nobody nominated changing that as a way of funding ATC? After all, it's the
> airlines that reap the greatest benefit from ATC, not GA.

US Aviation taxes and their rates have changed continuously over the years, due
to legislative action. In 2001, the aviation fuels taxes were locked into the
airport & airway trust fund, instead of going to the general fund. This was a
hard fought battle, strongly supported by AOPA among others.

Today, there is a 19.3 cents/gal federal tax on aviation gasoline. I am not
sure if scheduled airlines pay the same rate. (e.g. Cape Air burns mostly
avgas, just as a GA Bonanza does).

General aviation is taxed 21.8 cents/gal on Jet Fuel.

Airlines and air freight carriers are taxed at a lower rate, 4.3 cents/ gallon.
This is because airlines (i.e. their passengers) also raise aviation and airway
trust fund monies through the 7.5% ticket tax and segment taxes and air freight
carrier customers pay roughly equivalent waybill taxes.

[[email protected]]

On Jan 12, 11:41 am, (Scott) wrote:
>
> What if ATC fees were limited to revenue flights, regardless of engine type?
> Would dual instruction flights be included?
>
FAA has never even hinted that a fee structure would extract small
fees from small-plane GA. No infrastructure exists nor is possible to
efficiently collect it.

Fred F.

[Marissa Reichert]

wrote:

> On Jan 12, 11:41 am, (Scott) wrote:
> >
> > What if ATC fees were limited to revenue flights, regardless of engine type?
> > Would dual instruction flights be included?
> >
> FAA has never even hinted that a fee structure would extract small
> fees from small-plane GA.

Sure.

> No infrastructure exists nor is possible to
> efficiently collect it.

Why would FAA begin limiting itself to doing things efficiently?

[akjcbkJA]

"BT" > wrote in message
...
> The airlines are behind the push to put USER FEES on General Aviation. Why
> would they push to tax their own fuel?
> The Airlines will say that they pay their share.. they don't. Every ticket
> they sell includes a $10 fee that is passed from the customer to the Govt.
> But the airlines won't tell their passengers that is where the dollars are
> coming from to that they claim to have to pay.
>
The airlines exist to carry passengers so it is right that the passengers
pay to use the facilities. The passengers are the users so they pay the user
fees.

If airliners were flying empty then it might be right to tax the airlines on
empty seats but really, the passengers pay for everything in the end.

It is a bit of a dull argument divorcing the airline form the passenger.