Although people who appreciate traveling on cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages would very much like to see fees lowered, they do not want this to happen at the expense of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) taking appropriate measures to ensure their security when flying.
A federal appeals court has ruled that the government acted properly when it calculated fees that the airlines pay for airport security. Airlines were trying to get a reduction in the fees charged by the TSA.
TSA was given responsibility for overseeing passenger screening after the September 2001 terrorist attacks aboard four jets. TSA fees are capped at the amount airlines spent in 2000, the last year they were responsible for security.
In the court hearing, 20 airlines claimed that they spent approximately $305 million in 2000 vs. the $420 million calculated by a government hired consultant, Simat, Helliesen & Eichner. The airline figure came from Campbell Aviation Consultants.
A divided three judge panel of the U.S. appeals courts found that there was no authoritative source for the number of passengers the airlines screened in 2000. The majority decision noted that TSA had done a reasonable job of sorting out conflicting claims from dueling experts.
The lone dissenting judge said that the TSA had wrongly ignored contradictory evidence.
TSA sets security fees for both airlines and passengers. www.cheapfares.com