NATA CONTINUES BATTLING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES AGAINST USER FEE PROPOSAL
Alexandria, VA, April 8, 2013 – The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) opposes a highly anticipated aviation user fee proposal expected to be included in the Obama Administration’s fiscal year 2014 budget submission to the Congress later this week. The user fee would require all air transportation providers (commercial airlines and general aviation operators) to pay a $100 per-flight fee.
Last week, 223 Members of Congress, including U.S. House of Representatives Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-WA), and GA Caucus Co-chairs Sam Graves (R-MO) and John Barrow (D-GA), sent a letter to the President opposing the per-flight user fee.
Congress and the aviation industry are unanimously opposed to the imposition of an aviation user fee. Over the past five years, Members of Congress in the House and the U.S. Senate and industry coalitions and aviation associations sent numerous letters to the administration to reiterate that per-flight user fees will cripple the general aviation industry and the small businesses it represents. The most recent letter concluded by asking that this idea be abandoned once and for all.
User fees would devastate small businesses and organizations around the country that depend on general aviation. The imposition of a user fee would also be detrimental to the many states with little or no commercial airline service where general aviation plays an integral economic role.
“Establishing a per-flight user fee would have enormous negative economic consequences on the general aviation industry,” said NATA President and CEO Thomas L. Hendricks. “We believe the current method of collecting revenues through a per-gallon fuel tax is the most stable, efficient, and equitable source of funding for the Federal Aviation Administration.”
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NATA, the voice of aviation business, is the public policy group representing the interests of aviation businesses before Congress and the federal agencies.