In a move that may increase the total price of cheap travel, whether cheap airplane tickets or cheap vacation packages, President Obamas new budget proposal calls for increasing the passenger facility charge to a maximum of $7 vs. the current $4.50 per each flight segment.
The reason for this recommendation is that more money needs to be raised to offset the almost 33 percent cut ($1.1 billion) in airport grants called for in Obamas new budget.
The money raised from passenger facility charges, which totaled $2.8 billion in 2010, is used for Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved safety and expansion projects.
Airlines have come out against raising passenger facility charges claiming that it would increase taxes on its passengers by $2 billion and discourage people from flying.
Delta Air Lines has observed that raising the passenger facility charge would result in a family of four paying $112 in passenger charges on an average trip. This figure assumes one stop on a familys outbound trip and another returning home, for a total of four flight segments.
Airports have expressed concern that Obamas airport grant reductions would negatively impact critical safety, security and capacity project at airports across the country.
Republicans have come out against increasing the $4.50 passenger facility charge.
U.S. airports currently have $52 billion worth of renovation and construction projects eligible for federal grants from 2011 through 2015.
Included in the new budget are the following aviation projects:
Increase spending by $370 million for the Next Generation Air Transportation System, a satellite based air traffic control system that is scheduled to start being deployed in 2012.
Allocate $173 million to the Essential Air Service which subsidizes airline service to small regional airports.
Spend $82 million to purchase and install 275 more advanced scanning machines at security checkpoints. The aim is to have 1,275 machines installed at airports by the end of 2012.
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