Editor's Note: Our lead story yesterday concerned reports of an agreement between the FAA and the Air Transport Association on a user-fee system to fund the national airspace. We have new information today... that sets the record straight. Greg Martin speaks for the FAA.

"It's been incorrectly reported that the FAA and the ATA have signed an agreement on a proposal that would fund the air traffic control system through user fees. That's not correct, by any degree. The ATA, as mentioned by Herb Kelleher in a speech at the forecast conference before about 400 people and about a dozen reporters, said at the very end of his remarks that the airline industry -- those members of the ATA -- were able to hammer out a proposal that they would offer to the administration that would suggest funding of the system thru user fees, that they took about a year for them to negotiate. That's all true and accurate -- it's an industry proposal, which of course they are free to do with whatever they want. They can lobby us with it, they can lobby congress with it."

"Somehow, that proposal got linked to a proposal that we've been working on for about a year now, and continue to work really hard behind the scenes with the OMB, the Treasury and the administration. Because when we offer our proposal -- which we plan to do probably late March or early April -- we not only want it to be an innovative proposal, one that really clearly matches the needs of the system, but we actually want it to be a viable proposal -- one that has success of actually being implemented, knowing full well what are the very well-established positions by various segments of the industry."

"Just to make absolutely crystal clear -- the ATA and their members have a separate, distinct proposal that they are going to be offering out there for those to consider. Meanwhile, the FAA continues to work diligently on its proposal, and continues to involve a variety of users to the system -- whether it be the GA community, certainly commercial airlines, and let's not forget the variety of different segments of user, whether it be piston aircraft, turbine, or what have you."

"There are two separate, distinct plans. there is no agreement between the FAA and the ATA on a proposal that would involve user fees."

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.ata.gov