Fair Is Fair

The big battle being fought in Washington over the FAA Reauthorization is about who pays the bill. The Air Transport Association (i.e. The Big Airlines) have been pulling out all the stops to make sure everybody pays their “fair share.” I’ve written about it before and even provided a link to their cartoon. Oh yes, a cartoon. When I said “all the stops” I meant all the stops.

Take a look at all these statements.

Statement of James C. May, President and CEO Air Transport Association of America, Inc. before the Subcommittee on Aviation: “Equity – Will assure that each user pays its fair share but no more, unlike today where airlines pay for 94 percent of Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF) revenues but only account for 69 percent of all flights.”

”They want everyone to pay their fair share," ATA spokesman Dave Castelveter said.”


JIM MAY, AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION: The people we are focusing on are the corporate executives, movie stars and others. That portion of the aviation community is not paying their fair share, if you will, which should be roughly 16 percent of the overall use of the system.

Okay, I get it. The ATA wants everybody to pay their fair share when it comes to the National Airspace System. Except themselves.

”The ATA's proposal also exempts airlines from paying taxes on the first 250 miles of any domestic flight, which the group said was designed to help small communities. While JetBlue acknowledged it benefits from that proposal, the company does not endorse it since shuttles between New York City, Boston and Washington, D.C., also are exempt.”

Whoops. Read the article for yourself.

JetBlue Disputes Peers on FAA Proposal

Don Brown
September 2, 2007