In the most recent round of government and industry talks late last week about who should pay for the proposed revamping of the US Air Traffic Control System, it looks like General Aviation (GA) may have finally got a break. It all centers around new taxes primarily for airline passengers, versus the introduction of completely all new user fees for GA. Under the proposed new rules, there would be a fixed departure tax per passenger, plus a per passenger tax based on distance traveled.

No one in the GA community was happy with the airlines attempt to spread their costs out through user fees to GA, especially Mom and Dad when they take the Bonanza out for a day of recreational flying. It’s not the Bonanza that’s usually on approach to Chicago’s O’Hare airport, so why should Mom and Dad be required to pay a fee that would go towards maintaining such a big, massive airport, which is primarily served by the airlines and not Mom and Pop in their Bonanza, no less? Even according to FedEx Chairman Frederick W. Smith, peak scheduling at 25 or 30 major airports around the country is what drives delays and the volatility of the air traffic control system.

On the other hand the airline’s argument for spreading their costs out was based around the term known as a “blip”, or what an air traffic controller sees on his screen when there’s an aircraft in his sector of the sky. Whether it’s a Boeing 777 or a small GA aircraft, there’s a return or “blip” on the screen representing the aircraft, no matter what it is. The airlines would just say “A blip is a blip…”

So, another plane in the sky, another potential candidate the airlines could share their costs with, since Mom and Pop would be getting the same basic services from ATC, even if they weren’t going into Chicago.

But we’re talking about an air traffic control system that primarily came about and developed into it’s current state in order to handle the needs of the airlines in the first place. The crux of the issue here is that the FAA is facing a $4 billion dollar plus short fall in the next five years in it’s plan to modernize this current system we have in place, which it says it needs to do in order to bring itself into this century technologically (something the author has no beef with BTW). This will also be required in order to handle the projected increased growth of commercial aviation here in the US at the same time.

Either way, something needs to be done. After last week, it looks as if instead of user fees, new taxes may be imposed on general aviation (another bad idea) but even more possibly on the airline passengers themselves… with the additional possibility that the airlines might see a tax decrease as well- something the Aircraft Owners and Pilot’s Association is not happy about either.

~Capt’n Chris

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