As much as cheaptravel options, such as cheap airplane tickets, discounttravel packages, and cheap vacation packages canbe threatened by fees being added onto base airline ticket prices, travelersare much more bothered by airline fees than by government fees.
In fact most fliers would not mind paying more governmentfees, if that would help reduce lines at airports. A recent survey of over 1,000 U.S. travelersfound that 60 percent of leisure and business travelers said that they wouldsupport government fee increases if the money paid for improvements that wouldreduce delays at airports.
Government fees ranked as the least frustrating fee or taximposed on fliers according to this survey which was commissioned by a travelindustry trade group. Not surprisingly,the most frustrating fee, according to those surveyed, was the $200 charge thatmost airlines force passengers to pay to change flight reservations.
The top two things which travelers most dislike aboutflying were delays (30 percent) and airline fees (26 percent). Government taxes were ranked as the topcomplaint by only 1 percent of those surveyed.
The airlines industry position, articulated by Airlines forAmerican, the trade group for the countrys airlines, strongly opposes recentproposals to increase government fees on airfares. The Association claims that there is nocrisis in airport funding that would necessitate a fee hike.
Any increase in government fees on airline tickets willincrease ticket prices that it turn will reduce demand for travel and damagetourism, according to the airlines.
The trade group says that the federal government shouldinstead focus its attention on installing a new satellite based trackingcontrol system to replace the radar based system used today by air trafficcontrollers.
The Next Generation Air Transportation System (referred toas NextGen) is being pushed in part because it is supposed to empowercontrollers to place more planes on runways and in the air with greateraccuracy. The Federal AviationAdministration has been lobbying Congress to pass $1 billion in funding so thatthe installation of this new system can commence.
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