AOPA Action

The only aviation tax that airlines, as corporations, pay is a 4.3-cent-per-gallon fuel tax. Airline passengers pay a ticket tax that goes directly to the government. The Senate FAA funding bill proposes to eliminate the airline fuel tax and replace it with a $25 surcharge for each flight on all turbine-powered aircraft flying in controlled airspace. "Why in the world, if we're talking about more money for airports, and more money for air traffic control modernization, would you eliminate the only tax the airlines pay?" asked Boyer.

He called the surcharge a "user fee in disguise. We must not allow the words 'user fees' to get into any segment of aviation," said Boyer.

ASF Engine and Propeller online course

Get up to speed on your airplane's powerplant with the AOPA Air Safety Foundation's free Engine and Propeller online course. Through videos, animated engine cutaways, and interactive features (an engine-start simulator, for example), you'll learn how to get the best from your engine and prop--even if you don't know a carburetor from a camshaft. Course completion takes approximately 60 to 90 minutes. Check it out at AOPA Online.

AOPA details flight service complaints to DOT inspector general

AOPA has taken the flight service station problems straight to a government watchdog. AOPA President Phil Boyer and Andy Cebula, executive vice president for government affairs, spent nearly two hours in June detailing pilots' woes before Department of Transportation Inspector General Calvin Scovel and his staff.

• "Long hold times, dropped calls, lost flight plans, inexperienced briefers, failure to supply critical information such as TFRs [temporary flight restrictions]. We laid it all out," said Boyer.
• AOPA shared the results of its most recent pilot survey to reflect the experience of the entire pilot community.

More than two-thirds of the pilots surveyed felt that service from the automated flight service station (AFSS) network had become worse in the last 30 days. Some 44 percent said that they were "dissatisfied" or "very dissatisfied" with the briefing received, although the majority gave briefers high marks for professionalism and courtesy. But not for content delivered; 44 percent said that they were dissatisfied with briefers' local geographical and meteorological knowledge.

• And while the FAA's contract with Lockheed Martin requires phone calls to be answered within 21 seconds, only 18 percent of pilots surveyed said that their calls were answered that quickly. More than 50 percent said it took up to five minutes to get through to a briefer, and 30 percent reported waits of 10 minutes or more.
• "On a day when Lockheed Martin reported that the longest hold time for the entire system was four minutes, we had a member report of a 20-minute hold," said Boyer. "And their system averages seem to be much better than what our members say are their real-time experiences. We encouraged the IG to resolve that apparent discrepancy." The DOT inspector general is charged with promoting effectiveness and stopping waste, fraud, and abuse in the FAA and other transportation agencies.

User fee talk discovered in airline seatbacks

The airlines have begun stuffing seatbacks with anti-general aviation propaganda, right next to the airsickness bags. So far, editorials have appeared in Northwest's NWA WorldTraveler and United Hemispheres, under the headline "Smart Skies"--the namesake of the airlines' political initiative--blaming GA for all their woes, namely air traffic delays. AOPA members are stepping up to the plate to counter the propaganda, writing to the airline presidents. The airlines' trade organization, the Air Transport Association, has also started running ads on the CNN Airport Network, making the same claims. They were countered by the Alliance for Aviation Across America.

• "At the top 10 busiest airports in the United States, the FAA's own data show that general aviation makes up less than 4 percent of all aircraft operations," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. The ATC system was created for the airlines. The extensive cost is due to the airlines' hub-and-spoke system.
• AOPA agrees that the system needs an upgrade so that a satellite-based system can reduce fuel costs, bolster the economy, etc. But it's in the financial details where segments of the industry part ways.
• The Government Accountability Office as well as the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation have concluded that there is adequate money under the existing funding scheme to support modernization.