Private Jet-Setters Against Better Air Travel

The folks who don’t fly commercial are blocking air-traffic reform

WSJ editorial. Excerpts:

"The contention that the airlines would own the sky is a powerful political argument because the public imagines the traffic director of the heavens as a United gate agent. But the major airlines would nominate only one seat on a 13-member board, as the Reason Foundation’s Robert Poole has pointed out, down from four in a previous proposal.

Also on the board are members nominated by cargo airlines, regional airlines, airports, business jets, unions and others, none of whom will be easily reaccomodated to whatever the major airline agenda is. Board members cannot be employed or paid by any aviation business or group during their tenure. The bill also exempts general aviation from paying any air-traffic user fees. This includes business jets.

Another canard is that small communities will be stranded. The bill continues to throw money into the Airport Improvement Program, which exists to funnel money into runway and other updates, especially for rural airports. The bill also maintains Essential Air Service that pours cash into rural routes that are often barely patronized. One near certainty: Congress won’t end these subsidies.

What’s really going on? The business jet industry pays 0.6% of aviation user taxes but accounts for 11% to 13% of controlled traffic, as Marc Scribner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has noted. The industry would like to keep it that way.

Then again, perhaps his members should ask Mr. Bolen for a refund. The point of a spinoff is that private expertise could implement new technology that allows planes to take off and land in more efficient patterns and fly more direct routes. A CEO flying to Los Angeles for lunch is sensitive to 30 minutes awaiting takeoff.

The status quo comes at your expense. The Eno Center for Transportation recently compared weight and distance fees like Canada’s with U.S. taxes. Fees on an Airbus A320 from New York to Fort Myers, Fla., would be 43% lower than today’s taxes, and on some routes the figures dipped to a 60% reduction. This translates to a radical cut in the annoying list of costs tacked on to your ticket price."