Air Transport Association Proposes Funding Method for Next-Generation Air Traffic Control System

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Air Transport Association (ATA), the trade association for the leading U.S. airlines, and Delta Air Lines today testified before the Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee regarding the current Airport and Airway Trust Fund tax system and how alternate funding may be structured.

The passenger airline members of the ATA put forth to the Committee a financing proposal that is designed to cover the passenger airlines' share of air traffic control (ATC) and airport system costs while at the same time providing a predictable revenue stream to fund the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) upgrades to a satellite-based, information-centric ATC system that is essential to the future of aviation in the United States.

"I am pleased that ATA passenger airlines collaboratively have developed a financing proposal designed to cover the passenger airlines' share of ATC and airport system costs," said ATA President and CEO James C. May. "Our sustainable proposal returns to the user-pays, cost-based funding principles implemented by Congress in the 1970s. The proposal also restores fairness and predictability; it is a per-passenger tax that is more closely tied to the FAA projected costs, and allows FAA to better support long-term investments in technology and infrastructure."

Also testifying today was Delta Air Lines COO James Whitehurst, who joined ATA's Jim May in explaining the urgent need for an updated and equitable funding system.

"Our funding mechanism -- a passenger tax -- takes advantage of the existing tax collection infrastructure but is tied to projected costs," said Whitehurst. "The proposal is grounded in the principle that taxing departures and distance is the best way to recover the costs that aircraft impose on the air traffic and airport infrastructure."

The airlines' proposal was designed around the premise that airline passengers currently bear the brunt of funding FAA programs -- far out of proportion to the costs they impose or the benefits they receive. While the ATA proposal does not directly address other user groups, the expectation is that each would be required to pay their fair share as well, rather than continue to be subsidized by airline passengers.

ATA airline members and their affiliates transport more than 90 percent of all U.S. airline passenger and cargo traffic.