Here We Go Again, Everybody!
Just when we expected the ongoing verbal conflagration over user
fees to ebb a bit -- given that the FAA reauthorization debate is
all-but dead for this year, victim to partisan posturing in the US
Senate -- on Tuesday two Washington, DC-based think tanks decided
to throw new fuel on the fire.
The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and Essential Action (EA)
issued a joint report in lockstep with a number of contentions from
big airlines... that private business jets are strangling the
nation's air traffic control network, clogging airports and
airways, and contributing to global warming.
"The super-wealthy, private jet-set are shifting the costs of
their high-flying indulgence on to the rest of us," writes
Essential Action director Robert Weissman, who co-authored the
report High Flyers: How Private Jet Travel Is Straining the System,
Warming the Planet, and Costing You Money. "They pollute more than
commercial flight passengers, but don't pay. They don't pay a fair
share of their air traffic control costs. And they have manipulated
the tax code so we all subsidize the cost of private jet
purchases."
Predictably, the airline industry lobbying group Air Transport
Association welcomed the report; just as predictably, a number of
general aviation groups slammed it.
"For the past two years, the nation's big airlines have spent
millions of dollars on a PR and lobbying campaign designed to help
them seize greater control of the air traffic system and shift
their costs onto small aircraft," said a release from the Alliance
for Aviation Across America. "The report by IPS/EA appears to be
the latest chapter in the airlines’ playbook as these
Washington, DC think tanks mimic the airlines’ dubious data
manipulation techniques and parrot their talking points."
The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) also
responded to the joint report, saying it "resurrects the well-worn,
and worn-out airline industry claim that GA does not pay its fair
share of the costs associated with air traffic control (ATC)
services when in fact, the airlines themselves drive the costs of a
hub and spoke model that was built primarily to meet their
needs."
GAMA adds general aviation pilots already pay their fair share
to support the nation's ATC network, through "hefty" fuel taxes
imposed on 100LL and Jet-A. Those fees would climb even higher
under the FAA reauthorization bills now stalled in the House and
Senate.
The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) also dismissed
the report, calling it "inaccurate" and "out of touch with the
critical role small business aircraft play in supporting jobs,
transportation and economic activity in communities across the
country."
NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen said the reports "start with a
ridiculous caricature of general aviation that has been heavily
promoted by the airlines, but bears no relationship to reality.
Then, it throws a barrage of baseless, over-the-top claims against
the wall to see if anything sticks. In the end, none of the
allegations stick, because the report is both inaccurate and
distorted."
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