... while AAAE testifies on the need to stimulate U.S. airports.
At a time when corporations are curtailing their flight activity due to economic conditions, or because of cowering to bad publicity, Cessna Aircraft Company is demonstrating once again why it is a leader in this industry sector. Readers of today’s Wall Street Journal couldn’t miss the full-page ad that is part of Cessna’s new campaign to promote the business tools they sell – that is, aircraft. The headline reads: “Timidity didn’t get you this far. Why put it in your business plan now?â€
As Cessna CEO Jack J. Pelton says in a press release issued today, “We think it’s time the other side of the story be told.†Indeed. (For more on the campaign, visit www.cessnarise.com.)
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Jim Elwood, A.A.E. airport director at the Aspen-Pitkin County (CO) Airport and chair of the American Association of Airport Executives, is testifying today before the House Subcommittee on Aviation/Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The House is once again taking on long-term FAA reauthorization, but the current stimulus bill was intertwined in his testimony, released yesterday.
As in the past, AAAE is pushing for an increase in the passenger facility charge cap from $4.50 to $7, if nothing else to keep up with inflation; long-term reauthorization; adequate funding for the Airport Improvement Program; investment in air traffic control modernization; and, installation of in-line baggage screening systems at airports across the U.S. (You know, that little item which Congress directed two months after 9/11 but has yet to fully fund.)
A couple of other items worth noting in Elwood’s testimony ...
A call for suspension or elimination of the alternative minimum tax (AMT). “Federal tax law unfairly classifies the vast majority of bonds that airports use as private activity – even though they are used to finance runways, taxiways, and other facilities that benefit the public,†explains Elwood. “Due to the current financial crisis, virtually no long-term airport AMT bonds have been sold in the past few months. Consequently, airports are being forced to either postpone key infrastructure projects or find other sources of short-term financing.â€
A call for increasing to $50 million annually the funding for the Small Community Air Service Development Program, intended to help cities attract and sustain commercial air service. According to Elwood, DOT received 66 proposals from communities in 32 states requesting more than $36 million last year. In September, DOT awarded grants to 16 communities in 12 states. However, a key concern is how much the program is costing DOT to administer it. Comments Elwood, “Airport executives were shocked to learn that of the $10 million that Congress appropriated for this program, only $6.85 million is actually slated to go to small communities that need assistance. According to DOT’s order, the other $3.15 million will be used to cover ‘current and future administrative support costs.’â€
AAAE estimates that FAA’s airports division uses some 2 percent of AIP monies for covering the cost of administering the program. The SCASD program, however, eats up 32 percent of funds.
If what’s going on in the “stimulate me†environment of D.C. these days doesn’t scare people, the subsequent costs of administering the barrage of programs ahead should. Count on it – not too far down the road a major media story will be the vast amounts of money flushed down the toilet of bureaucracy because of poor administration and/or oversight.
Thanks for reading. jfi