Most airlines are keeping additional revenue diverted during current federal aviation “tax holiday”
Late last week, the Federal Aviation Administration furloughed some 4,000 employees and began shutting down many functions, because Congress was too busy posturing and jockeying for political positions to renew funding for the FAA. Air controllers, being essential to public safety, are still on the job, but there’s no mechanism to collect millions of dollars of airline tax revenues that increase air fares up to 15 percent.
You’d think that this would be a savings for travelers, but no-o-o-o. Rather than giving passengers a price break, all but three airlines (Alaska Airlines, low-fare Spirit Airlines and Virgin America) kept air fares at their previous rate and pocketed the revenues that would otherwise have gone to the government. The U.S. Treasury is strapped. To raise or not to raise the debt ceiling is a matter of ideological debate. The airlines, having pared costs and socked passengers with fees for formerly free services (like checked-bag fees that annually yield $3.4 billion in revenues), seem to be doing quite well — and they’ll be doing better as long as they manage to keep their windfall, tax-free to boot.
This might be a foretaste of the economic system if the no-tax crew gets its way. The government will be ever more cash-strapped, loosely regulated corporations will benefit and the public (traveling and otherwise) will get screwed.
