RAA Blasts DOT’s ‘Modest Proposal

DOT’s continued pursuit of airport congestion pricing schemes is “unconscionable, inconceivable and mind boggling” at a time when skyrocketing fuel costs have cut airline schedules by up to 20 percent and reports have some 100 U.S. communities losing all service by year’s end, RAA President Roger Cohen told airport officials yesterday.
Speaking at the 80th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE), RAA President Roger Cohen compared DOT’s self-described “modest proposal” of congestion pricing for the New York area airports to the 1729 Jonathon Swift “A Modest Proposal” essay in which the British author suggested a market based solution to the kingdom’s poverty, famine and overpopulation problems: that poor children be bred to become a staple of the country’s diet.
“What’s really scary is that while Swift’s modest proposal was in jest, written to highlight the government’s wrong-headed approach to serious issues – the DOT policy to pile on communities already being priced out of scheduled service by $160 barrel oil is no joke”, said Cohen. “Just last week, DOT denied requests for a public hearing to further explain how their “modest proposal” of auctioning slots would work.”