The aviation fees that can account for 25 percent of your airfares are being diverted to upgrade private airports used by corporate and private jets:
"They're making out like bandits," said Bob Poole, director of transportation studies at Southern California's Reason Foundation and author of several studies on air transportation costs. "It's not only that airline passengers are paying more than their fair share, but they're being overtaxed to give private jets a free ride."…
• J.T. Wilson Field in Somerset, Ky. got more than $12 million since 2001, much of it through the influence of local Rep. Hal Rogers, a longtime Republican member of the House Appropriations Committee who uses the airfield for trips home. Wilson Field is home base to 26 small planes and one jet. Despite millions in improvements, including a passenger terminal, the airport has yet to see scheduled commercial service…
• California's Napa Valley Airport collected $6.3 million in taxpayer dollars over the past two years, even though it mainly serves private jets and small planes in addition to being a pilot training base for Japan Air Lines.
• Sardy Field, in the ultra-rich mountain playground of Aspen, Colo., has received $27.2 million in funding since 2005. While Aspen does offer service by major airlines, private jets and other general aviation aircraft make up the majority of its traffic, airport officials said.
(via Consumerist)
Update: Mike takes exception to this characterization of the disbursement of aviation taxes:
With few exceptions, every commercial pilot in the U.S. learned to
fly, or at least built up the majority of his or her flight time, at
small general-aviation airports. It currently costs at least $8,000
for an individual to get his or her private pilot license, and believe
it or not that's actually inexpensive compared to what it would cost
if the airlines had their way on the user fee issue. If it cost a
student pilot $120 just to take off from his or her local airport, and
$60 to land again, then the cost of a private pilot license would
balloon to probably $30,000 and general aviation would cease to exist.
The only airplanes in the sky would be either those of the ultra-rich
who don't care what you charge, or giant behemoths that can amortize
that $180 across each of their hundreds of passengers.It's easy to point out that corporate jets land at small airports, and
therefore that the rich people inside those jets are benefiting from
tax dollars. But rich people drive on highways, too, and you're surely
not advocating that each road in the U.S. become a toll road. That
would be a regressive tax that hurts exactly the wrong people.
Update 2: Craig sez,
If someone needs in or out of a community for medical reasons, often some little airport there is the only way.
Organ transport only works in small aircraft, unless the organs you need happen to be in the major city you're doing the medical work in.
On a lesser significant but more personal note, I have flown into a number of small way-out-of-the-way airports to transport people – friends, or friends of friends – who needed to get to Seattle to be with loved ones who are in hospital. People who couldn't get enough time off from employers to make the drive to and from the city.
