Weight-based User Fee Might Incentivize Smaller Planes

Those advocating Air Traffic Control user fees are revealed in this
document:


http://www.gao.gov/htext/d05333sp.html

National Airspace System:

Experts' Views on Improving the U.S. Air Traffic Control
Modernization Program

April 13, 2005.


The suggested initiatives included replacing taxes with user fees
based on the cost of air traffic services, allowing the ATO to
manage those fees, and giving the ATO borrowing and leasing
authority. The panelists advocating these kinds of initiatives
said the initiatives would help the ATO address the predicted
funding shortfall and free it from the constraints of the federal
budget process, as well as enable the ATO to pay for the technical
expertise and the technologies it needs to deliver efficient,
cost-effective service. In addition, these panelists said,
removing the ATO's funding from the appropriations process would
establish a direct relationship between the ATO and its customers
that could promote efficiencies and improve service. According to
these panelists, customers would monitor the ATO's spending to
ensure that the ATO addressed their priorities, and the ATO would
provide better service because it would try to please the
customers rather than the appropriators who now fund its
activities. Restructuring the financing of the modernization
program could streamline and strengthen the ATO's management, they
said. According to these panelists, this kind of financing
arrangement would allow program managers to make decisions
quickly, on the basis of business rather than political
considerations, and could provide the ATO with the management
tools needed to fully execute its mission. While not disagreeing
with the potential benefits of the proposed structural changes,
other panelists cautioned against investing too much effort in
them, since, in the view of these other panelists, the changes
were, for the most part, politically infeasible. Moreover, as one
panelist noted, even if the structural changes were implemented,
it would be important to consider what problems they were creating
as well as what problems they were addressing. He suggested,
for example, that a weight-based user fee might incentivize
smaller planes and more planes, thereby having the unintended
effect of increasing demands on the ATC system's capacity.
Finally, one panelist said, restructuring could resolve the
conflict of interest inherent in FAA's dual responsibility as the
regulator and the operator of air traffic services.