"Aviation world faces turbulence: Plan shifts costs, possibly hurting S.D. airports"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Monday, April 16, 2007

Aviation world faces turbulence
Plan shifts costs, possibly hurting S.D. airports
By Dirk Lammers
The Associated Press


SIOUX FALLS - A Federal Aviation Administration proposal to shift more
airline industry costs to the general aviation community would be a huge
blow to sparsely populated states, a South Dakota lawmaker says.

''They would triple the fuel tax essentially on general aviation users,
which would literally dry up and shut down the general aviation business in
states like South Dakota. And I think that's dead on arrival,'' said Sen.
John Thune, R-S.D.

South Dakota's smaller airports rely on taxes and fees from airline tickets
bought by passengers flying out of major airports to cover the costs of
everything from extending and rehabilitating runways to buying snow plows.

Some of these airports used the federal dollars - more than $7 billion over
the past decade to accommodate a growing number of private jets, an
Associated Press review has found.

Passengers pay as many as six separate taxes and fees on a single airline
ticket, adding up to more than $104 billion over the past decade, the AP
found. The taxes and fees finance the Federal Aviation Administration and
its air traffic control operations, as well as passenger and baggage
screening, federal air marshals and police presence at the nation's
commercial hubs.

Plan's details: The FAA wants to scrap many existing passenger taxes and
replace them with higher fuel taxes and user fees that would put more of the
burden on general aviation.

FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey, testifying last month before a House
transportation subcommittee, said a corporate jet uses the same air traffic
control services as a commercial airline, but contributes far less.

''In other words, commercial operators and everyday passengers are
subsidizing use of the system by corporate jets,'' Blakey said. ''I do not
believe this is equitable.''

But Thune said the FAA's proposal would tax small planes at the same rate as
corporate jets, and that is not equitable.

''You can't equate a corporate jet flown by a pharmaceutical company that's
flying from Miami to New York with a general aviation plane flying from
Faith to Rapid City,'' Thune said. ''That's not, in my view, an
apples-to-apples comparison.''

Thune said many of the nation's air congestion problems were created by
legacy airlines' use of the hub-and-spoke system. Costs associated with that
system should be borne by those who created it, he said.

''The reason there's so much congestion in Chicago and Atlanta between 4 and
6 in the afternoon is because they designed it that way.''

Funding source: The main source of federal funding for small airports and
airstrips is the Airport Improvement Program, which has distributed $7.1
billion to airports of all sizes since 2005.

About $2.2 billion of that went to small airports with little or no
passenger service, many of them near popular recreation or tourist
destinations. Most of that money was collected from commercial airline
passengers.

''It's not only that airline passengers are paying more than their fair
share, but they're being overtaxed to give private jets a free ride,'' said
Bob Poole, director of transportation studies at Southern California's
Reason Foundation and author of several studies on air transportation costs.

A study released in February by the FAA said it cost $2.4 billion just to
provide air traffic control for private and corporate planes in 2005. Yet
the industry contributed just $516 million in fuel taxes that year. Another
$500 million annually pays for weather forecasts and other preflight data
for private pilots.

S.D. recipients: Some recipients of the largest AIP grants in South Dakota:

   Gettysburg Municipal Airport, near the exclusive Sutton Bay golf club and
several hunting lodge resorts, received $2.2 million in 2004 to install
runway lighting and path indicators and rehabilitate the airport's runway,
taxiway and apron.

   Onida Municipal Airport, about 30 miles from Gettysburg, was given $1.7
million in 2006 to extend its runway.

   Clark County Airport received $1.1 million in 2005 to rehabilitate its
apron, runway and taxiway.

   Highmore Municipal Airport received $1.2 million in 2005 to construct a
runway, apron and taxiway.

   Bison Municipal Airport in 2006 received $1.6 million to install runway
lighting and rehabilitate its apron, runway and taxiway.

Airport construction projects are federal, but the money goes through the
South Dakota Department of Transportation and the state Aeronautics
Commission. Construction at small airports in South Dakota is funded 95
percent by the FAA, 2 percent from the state and 3 percent local, said Bruce
Lindholm, program manager of the state DOT's Office of Aeronautics.

Prioritizing: Projects are prioritized based on need, with repairing a
runway having a higher priority than building a new parking apron.

The FAA has well-established criteria to determine whether airports are
eligible for funding, Lindholm said. To extend its runway, an airport would
have to show it has or very likely will have a certain number of operations
of a certain type of aircraft.

Airports such as those in Gettysburg and Onida showed they could draw in
small jet traffic, so they qualified for runway extensions. Medium to large
jets flying into the area land in nearby Pierre, he said.

''You would determine your runway length by the aircraft that are using or
very likely to use that airport,'' Lindholm said.

Some South Dakota airports are used primarily as destination airports to
bring in tourists, but there is a wide variety of reasons airports are
important to communities, Lindholm said.

Some are essential for air ambulance service, while others such as the
Mission Sioux or Pine Ridge airports fly in medical specialists to serve
residents on American Indian reservation. Some small Black Hills airports
are key to assisting aerial forest fighters, and others play a big role in a
community's efforts to develop industry and business, he said.

''Having an airport in your community is very important for economic
development,'' Lindholm said. ''A lot of companies won't even look at a
community without an airport.''

Major impact: The economic impact of aviation in South Dakota is about $52
million, Thune said.

''I think you've got to have a good quality both commercial and general
aviation air service sector in your economy to accommodate not only the flow
of passengers and freight, but also the general aviation needs that people
in our state have,'' the senator said.

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http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php

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