"Aviation trust fund falls short"

Monday, May 16, 2005

Aviation trust fund falls short 
BY KATIE HAGEN
The Durham (NC) Herald-Sun


DURHAM -- U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said
Monday that to keep up with the rising demand for air travel, the country
needs a better way to pay for new airport towers, runways and safety
equipment. 

Mineta kicked off his weeklong National Transportation Week bus tour through
seven cities in five states with a visit to Durham's General Electric
airplane engine facility. 

The aviation trust fund, established in 1970 to pay for airport
infrastructure improvements, is not raising enough money through a 7.5
percent tax on plane tickets to pay for all of these improvements. Mineta
said. 

Air travel is growing so quickly, Mineta said, that by 2015 the number of
airplane passengers will have doubled to 1 billion. 

But the trust fund and improvements to airport capacity and technology are
not keeping pace, he said. 

The popularity of low-fare carriers is one reason that the fund is stretched
so thin, Mineta said. 

"This is great news for travelers, but it has unfortunate implications for
the aviation trust fund," he said. 

Because ticket prices are falling, less money is going into the trust fund.
Last year, the fund fell $4 billion short of the $13 billion needed for
improvements. 

"The costs are outstripping what's coming in," Mineta said. 

Lagging infrastructure improvements could have a devastating effect on such
businesses as the Durham GE facility. 

"Who needs new engines if we don't have the infrastructure to support new
airplanes?" he said. 

GE Airplane Engine plant leader Chuck Williams agreed with Mineta's warning.


"Any disruption to the growth we're experiencing right now is a concern," he
said. 

The trust fund and the ticket tax are up for renewal in 2007, but Mineta
said that he does not want the DOT to be the chokepoint for travel. 

"Waiting to build new runways, navigation equipment and passenger terminals
would be like waiting until we're thirsty to dig a well," he said. 

Mineta said that "the 1970s model" must be traded in for one that can "keep
pace with the growing number of passengers that airlines are seeing every
day." 

But he said he doesn't have any preset ideas for a solution. 

"We're starting with a blank piece of paper and looking at all solutions,"
he said. 

Mineta said that he wants to devise a solution by the end of the year and
pass legislation through Congress by June 2007. 

Appointed in January 2001, Mineta is the first Asian-American Cabinet member
and the first Cabinet member to switch directly from a Democratic to a
Republican administration.


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