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Airlines avoiding delays issue; more interested in getting a tax break

Friday, October 26 at 12:06 PM

This Speakout has not been edited.

By David Cole

This summer, air travel delays reached unprecedented levels. Passengers across the country are getting fed up with delayed or canceled flights, missed connections and disrupted vacation or business plans. While no one denies that modernizing our air traffic control system would aid in curbing some delays, the real culprit behind delays must be addressed.

The airlines’ unrealistic scheduling practices have stranded thousands of passengers over the course of the summer yet their management has refused to accept responsibility. The airline companies have engaged in a propaganda campaign in an attempt to deflect attention from their own mismanagement and inefficiency.

In the last few years, airline companies have begun to abandon large jets for smaller, regional jets flying more frequently into already busy airports such as Denver, JFK, and Atlanta. As airline companies compete for passengers, they push more flights into peak flying hours at these congested airports. They frequently attempt to schedule more arrivals and departures than airports can safely handle, causing massive delays as runways get clogged with flights. Add variables such as weather into the mix and flights get cancelled, leading to stranded passengers.

Over the last few months, the airline companies have funded massive lobbying and public relations campaigns aimed at passengers and members of Congress, claiming that a new air traffic control system would completely solve the problem of delays. They maintain that small, private planes, or general aviation aircraft, are causing delays, and moreover, that the operators of these aircraft do not want to pay for modernizing our air traffic control system.

Nothing could be further from the truth. With Congress currently working on a bill to reauthorize funding for the Federal Aviation Administration, the airlines have put forth a proposal that would shift their tax burden onto these private planes - and give the airlines a massive tax break. Yet contrary to the airlines’ propaganda, this bill would actually decrease funding for modernization, thereby harming our ability to pay for needed improvements. It is no wonder that the proposal has been all but abandoned in Congress.

Both the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have gone on record stating that the current funding structure can successfully fund modernization. With this background, the House of Representatives recently passed an alternate bill, H.R. 2881 which will generate “historic” funding levels for modernization.

The bill increases general aviation’s financial contribution by 40% but does not award the airline companies a tax break.

H.R. 2881 also protects the general aviation industry for new pilots.
Flight students around the country hope to see a bright future in the field — whether they plan to fly for a commercial airline or for a business.

Under the airline-supported proposal, general aviation would be crushed under a weight of new taxes and fees, making learning to fly prohibitively expensive and unappealing. This would eventually reduce the number of trained pilots available to work in our state, harming the businesses that rely on planes to serve customers in rural areas, and even the airlines themselves.

To reduce the delays of this summer, Congress must adopt a bill that both funds modernization and protects general aviation. H.R. 2881 is such a bill. But in addition to this, the airlines need to schedule realistically, abiding by airport limitations instead of knowingly engaging in practices that harm the flying public. Instead of focusing on their pocketbooks, airline companies need to focus on the well-being of their customers and address their own problems instead of engaging in misleading propaganda campaigns.

David Cole has flown for several airlines in the past thirty-five years, is recently retired from United Airlines, owns his own small airplane and is the flight program director for Colorado Northwestern Community College in Rangely. His flight program manages the Rangely Airport for its owner, Rio Blanco County.

READER COMMENTS

Mr. Cole has it right! The airlines have caused their problem and now want to shed some taxes that it just transfers to the passengers anyhow. Don't think that they'll lower fares-no, they'll increase them and passengers won't see savings.
By the way, President Bush is proposing to raise taxes (on aviation gas) id that matters to anyone.

Posted by retired teacher on October 26, 2007 08:37 PM