‘Why Pay Higher Aviation Taxes Than a Rock Star, When You Don’t Fly Like One?’ Asks the Air Travelers Association

POTOMAC, Md., March 20 /PRNewswire/ — In a statement issued in advance of the House Aviation Subcommittee hearing on FAA reauthorization scheduled for March 21, 2007, David Stempler, President of the Air Travelers Association, asked, “Why should airline passengers pay more aviation taxes than a rock star flying in a private, corporate jet, when airline passengers don’t fly like one?”

Stempler explained that, “the current system of aviation taxes is unfair because the same aircraft, operated on the same route, using the same air traffic control services, pays vastly different amounts when used by airline passengers versus rock stars and other privileged users of their own corporate jets. For example, an airline Boeing 737 operating from New York to Chicago with airline passengers pays $1,356 in aviation taxes. Yet the same Boeing 737 operated for a rock star will pay $276. That’s almost 5 times more taxes for the airline passengers on the same aircraft on the same route. How is that fair when the rock star and other corporate jet users can easily afford the same taxes paid by airline passengers?”

“Why the big difference in taxes?” asks Stempler. “Aviation taxes were established over 35 years when the air traffic control system was mostly used by the airlines. Now the skies are flooded with corporate jets and they are not paying their fair share of their use of the system. As recently forecast by the Federal Aviation Administration, the congestion at our airports and in the skies is only going to get worse in the future,” Stempler concluded.

“So when you’re in a passenger seat in a long line of airliners waiting to take off, and you see one of those corporate jets land or take-off, they should stop and thank you for the ‘free ride’, because you and your fellow airline passengers are paying for those corporate jets to fly on the cheap,” Stempler said.

Stempler concluded that “with airlines using less than 70% of the aviation system but airline passengers paying for almost 95% of it, aviation taxes should be changed so that airline passengers are no longer forced to subsidize the operation of corporate jets for corporate executives, rock stars, real estate moguls, and other wealthy individuals.”

The Air Travelers Association advocates for airline passengers on airline safety, security, savings, and service. David Stempler, President of the Air Travelers Association, is an internationally known authority on airline passenger and air travel issues.

Air Travelers Association

CONTACT: David S. Stempler, President of the Air Travelers Association,+1-301-469-8110, Cell: +1-301-980-8888,David.Stempler@AirTravelersAssociation.com

Web site: http://www.airtravelersassociation.com/