Thread: $16,619.85
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Old January 4th 08, 06:14 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
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Default $16,619.85

Its not clear what the marginal cost of GA is in the US. Arguably it
is zero or negligible because all the infrastructure in place (control
towers, FSS etc) are there to serve the airlines and GA aircraft can
be refused many ATC services like flight following, access to class B
etc if the workload is too high. In other words, if all the GA traffic
in the US were to disappear overnight, the costs of running airports,
control towers etc is going to remain almost the same. I am not aware
of free services that exist solely for GA. Whatever costs are incurred
by GA are covered in part by a fuel surcharge.
There are landing fees for most passenger aircraft at larger airports.
Landing fees do not exist at smaller airports for GA traffic.


No, I'm talking about airports only. If American airports don't ask for
landing fees _and_ don't get subsidies, what the hell do they make
money from? Their core business, namely offering a place where aircraft
can land and take off, can't be it, cause it's free. They might make
money from selling petrol (if they sell any), or from an associated
restaurant, or from hangar rents. But you can do the same running a
petrol station for cars, with a much lower investment, so it's not
going to be very attractive businesswhise.

Regards

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