GA unified against
airlines’ GA user fee proposal
By David Sakrison
 |
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EAA President Tom
Poberezny and a panel of aviation leaders discuss the threat of
general aviation user fees at a forum on Tuesday. Photo by
Hilary Lawrence |
A diverse group of
general aviation voices joined in opposition to general aviation (GA)
user fees on Tuesday at EAA AirVenture. The session, moderated by EAA
President Tom Poberezny, included Jack Pelton, president and CEO of
Cessna Aircraft Company; Ed Bolen, president of the National Business
Aircraft Association; Phil Boyer, president of the Aircraft Owners &
Pilots Association; Alan Klapmeier, president of Cirrus Design; and Pete
Bunce, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.
The group presented
strong arguments against the Airline Transportation Association’s
(ATA) recent call for air traffic system user fees on GA jets and
turbine-powered aircraft. Poberezny explained that the ATA has also
called for a governing board to control the air transportation system,
to be dominated by the airlines and free of congressional oversight.
"The airlines’
goal—to pay less and control more," he said, "does not bode
well for general aviation." Other panel members described the ATA
initiative as a "power grab" by the airline industry.
Said Klapmeier:
"There is no single country in the world where aviation user fees
work well. The airlines want to impose a broken system from the rest of
the world onto the U.S. air transportation system." Europe’s
experience is instructive, he said. "As user fees rise, fewer
people can afford to fly. As fewer people fly, the fee per user will
rise.
"Our argument is not
about whether general aviation pays its fair share [of air traffic
system costs]," he added. "We believe we already pay a fair
share of the costs through aviation fuel taxes." That share is in
line with costs that general aviation aircraft generate, he said.
"The airlines drive
the cost of the air traffic system," said Bunce. "ATA claims
that ‘a blip [on a radar screen] is a blip is a blip’ and that it
costs as much to move a GA aircraft as an airliner. That’s not
true."
At the nation’s 35
major airline hubs, GA traffic is only 6 percent of the volume, Bunce
said, and "if you list the top 20 airline airports and the top 20
GA airports [by volume], not a single airport appears on both lists.
"In the three years
since GA aircraft were banned from Washington D.C.’s Reagan
International Airport," Bolen added, "there has been not one
bit of cost savings’ [to the air traffic system]. The airlines drive
the costs."
User fees are not an
immediate issue, Poberezny said. The current GA fuel tax expires in the
fall of 2007. But they will be a huge issue, and the airlines are
campaigning aggressively for public opinion.
What the airlines fear
most, he said in closing, is "the power of general aviation to get
out the vote."
"Get involved," he told the
audience. "Tell your congressman that, as a pilot, I want you
[Congress], not the airlines, to control the nation’s air
transportation system."
A video of this event is available in our
AirVenture video archives.
