As the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2009 gets closer to a Senate vote, you can be sure that the airlines are going to find mouthpieces to try and misinform the public about General Aviation (GA).
So it’s no surprise to read this morning Thomas Frank of USA Today parroting airline talking points. However, the depth to which the reporting in this article has sunk to is truly breathtaking.
The article starts with a ridiculous statement:
One of the USA’s newest airports has a 5,500-foot lighted runway, a Colonial-style terminal with white columns, and hundreds of acres for growth. But Kentucky’s Williamsburg-Whitley County Airport lacks one feature: airline passengers.
[..it’s like saying that we don’t need to build roads unless there are bus passengers to use them.. brilliant!]
And the article gets worse from here.. The next talking point is that
The Williamsburg airport is the result of an obscure federal program that raises billions of dollars a year through taxes on every airplane ticket sold in the United States. The taxes can add up to 15% to the cost of a flight — or about $29 to a $200 round-trip ticket.
That “obscure federal program” is the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) – a program that’s been around in one shape or another since 1946.. The article does not mention what portion of the taxes goes to GA airports – making it seem like airline passengers are unfairly saddled with the burden of sponsoring small airports.
The fact is that out of this tax, congress allocated $3 for air carrier airport improvements to every $1 to be spent at GA airports. This is true even though GA utilizes over 15,000 airports across the US – compared to the less than 600 used by commercial airlines (the number of GA vs. Commercial airports mentioned in the article is completely wrong).
The article also fails to mention that all GA pilots and operators pay into the Airport/Airways Trust Fund through fuel taxes. These taxes allow aircraft users to pay federal taxes “at the pump” – general aviation pays a 21.9 cents-per-gallon tax on jet fuel and a 19.4 cents-per-gallon tax on aviation gasoline (100LL).
The article then turns to cheap populism:
The lawmakers also regularly use general-aviation airports to get around their districts and states, sometimes in planes with lobbyists.
Oh noes!.. So that’s why GA gets so much money – so that congressmen can connive with lobbyists in remote airports!.. </sarcasm>
But let’s take a look at the “other findings” this intrepid reporter has unearthed:
* General-aviation airports are vastly underused. A USA TODAY analysis of aviation plans in seven states indicates that more than half of their 312 general-aviation airports operate at less than 10% capacity. Nearly 90% operate at less than one-third of their capacity, well below the rates of larger airports that serve commercial passengers.
Again – following this logic – we should close most city and county roads because they don’t operate at the same capacity as the Interstate Highway.
* Three-quarters of general-aviation airports lose money every year and stay solvent only with cash from local taxpayers, says Vitaly Guzhva, a finance professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.
Wait – I thought that tax payer money was used for these airports, right? Clearly if the local communities invest in local airports, they must see the value in keeping them around.
* The U.S. government pays such a large share of capital costs at general-aviation airports — 95% — that a lawmaker who co-wrote the 2003 law setting that rate now says it’s “too high.”
Again – much of this is funded through the fuel tax mentioned above – that somehow does not get mentioned in this article at all.
* Nearly 2,400 airports have received $10 billion combined in federal dollars while handling fewer than 80 flights a day, according to FAA flight estimates. Most of the flights carry only a few people. Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport handles that many flights in a half-hour.
See point #1.
AOPA has written a short response to Mr. Frank – mentioning that
AOPA’s media relations staff learned of the story a week before it was published and had a lengthy conversation with the USA Today reporter, but was not included in the article.
Shocka.
Here are the real facts – presented by the AOPA
For 2007:
The FAA distributed $3.34 billion in AIP funds to 2,610 airports.
341 primary airports—airports with more than 100,000 passenger boardings each year—received $2.1 billion in AIP funds. That’s an average of $6.17 million per airport.
48 commercial service airports—airports with between 2,500 and 100,000 passenger boardings—received $93 million, or an average of $1.94 million per airport.
139 GA reliever airports received $214 million, or an average of $1.54 million
982 GA airports received $617 million, or an average of $628,000.
Combined, the 389 airline airports divvied up $2,199,335,046, averaging $5.5 million per airport. The 1,121 GA airports shared $831,717,227, averaging $741,942.
An addition, $310 million was distributed through state block grant programs.
Expect more attacks in the coming weeks. We’ve been through this before, but this article hits a new low in biased reporting. If GA is important to you – write to USA TODAY – and your congressman and let them know you will not be grounded.
Gad Barnea – CEO – FlyMiwok, Inc.
Comments on this entry are closed.