"Air fuel tax could ground private fliers"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Monday, June 18, 2007

Air fuel tax could ground private fliers
Proposal might add takeoff, landing fees
By Melanie Turner
The Sacramento (CA) Business Journal


Small-plane owners may be asked to help foot the bill for a new air-traffic
control system.

View Larger Real estate broker Charles White believes a federal plan to
boost funding for the nation's outdated air-traffic control system would
unfairly burden private pilots and small-business owners. 

Aviation officials are proposing a roughly 50-cent-a-gallon rise in the
federal fuel tax for corporate jets and small planes. 
  
"That's a whole big jump," said White, of Truckee, whose twin-engine Piper
Apache uses about 15 gallons of fuel an hour. The federal fuel tax would
increase to 70 cents a gallon, meaning White would pay more than $5 a
gallon. 

The plan also calls for a user fee, charged for takeoffs and landings, on
general aviation aircraft. Based on the aircraft's weight, the fee would be
in effect at the nation's 30 largest airports. But private pilots are
worried that fees would soon expand to smaller airports. 

Since the Bush administration released its aviation financing reform
proposal in February, a debate has been brewing over who should pay for
improvements. 

A new flight plan 

Federal officials say reform is needed to build new system that will handle
nearly 25 percent more passengers by 2015. The Federal Aviation
Administration estimates the nation's airports will handle about 760 million
passengers this year, and 1 billion in the next eight years. 

About 80 percent of the agency's budget comes from a 7.5 percent tax on
passenger tickets, said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. But because of changing
ticket prices, the FAA wants to end the passenger tax and establish fees
based on the system's use. 

Commercial airlines support the plan, arguing their industry bears an unfair
burden compared with general aviation. 

But small-aircraft advocates say the fee proposal would hurt small airports,
flight schools, private pilots and small-business owners, transferring
billions of dollars of the airlines' tax burden onto businesses and small
communities. 

Scott Powell, president of Sacramento Jet Center, which refuels and services
jets at Executive and Sacramento International airports, said the proposal
stands to hurt his business and everyone who flies privately. 

Powell sent a letter this week to Sen. Daniel Inouye, a Democrat from Hawaii
and chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which recently presented
another plan for funding a modern air-traffic control system. 

The committee proposed a $25 a-flight fee on commercial planes and on the 10
percent of general aviation planes that use the system. 
  
Sky-high fees? 

Ed Callaway, president and chief instructor at Executive Fliers, a flight
school at Executive Airport, said he is concerned fees would be handed down.


"If they impose fees on the airlines, it'll only be a matter of time before
they start to ask for fees from the general aviation population," he said. 

The FAA says existing infrastructure cannot handle future demand. Plans call
for replacing the existing ground-radar with a satellite-based control
system with an estimated cost of at least $15 billion. 

Currently, general aviation accounts for 16 percent of the cost of operating
the system but pays 3 percent of the tab, FAA spokesman Gregor said. At the
same time, he said, commercial airlines account for 73 percent of the
budget, but passengers pay for about 95 percent of those costs. 

"It's a much more fair and balanced financing system than what we have in
place now," Gregor said of the proposal.

   Post your opinion on this story in the CAA General Aviation Forum
http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php

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