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http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-04-14-oppose_x.htm
By Phil Boyer
Our elected representatives in Congress wisely created a national air
transportation system, as they did with highways for cars and trucks. The
Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic control system is designed to
serve the airlines. Most small planes use few, if any, of these services.
Usually, they fly in a see-and-be-seen fashion.
Remarkably, 75% of all U.S. airline passengers travel through just 30
airports. However, general aviation gets people to more than 5,400 publicly
used airports. The small airport in a local community today is often a key
link to non-airline air transportation and other essential services. The
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association represents more than 400,000 members
who own and pilot these personal and business-use airplanes.
Passengers on the airlines pay for operation of this national system through
fees and taxes assessed by federal, state and local governments. The
airlines pay a modest federal fuel tax of four cents a gallon. Conversely,
general aviation flights fund their use of the system through a fuel tax
five times what the airlines pay. That makes sense, as there are often no
passengers to tax on a typical small aircraft flight.
Proponents who support replacing the fuel tax with user fees and privatizing
the air traffic control system often claim greater efficiency and cost
benefits. One only need look at the privatized systems in Canada, the United
Kingdom or Germany, where costs have risen and services have declined.
The United States is geographically slightly smaller than Europe, but we
have twice the air traffic -- 15.9 million flights a year vs. 7.9 million in
the European Union. U.S. airline on-time rates are 77%, compared with
Europe's 73%. There are 21 control centers in the USA, compared with 41 in
the EU, and we pay proportionately fewer air traffic controllers -- 17,000
-- to manage twice the traffic at comparable cost.
There can be only one air traffic control system. It is and must be a
monopoly, eliminating competitive forces that drive costs down. Currently,
it's government-run. User-fee proponents see privatization as a way to save
money. As an airline passenger, do you want the control and safety of your
flight to be in the hands of the "lowest bidder"?
Phil Boyer is president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.