Airlines for America Says White House Budget Proposal Would Offset Deficit on Backs of Airline Customers

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Feb 13, 2012, 04:15 ET

2012 Budget Proposal Seeks to Raise Billions of Aviation Dollars, Will Cost Thousands of Jobs, Impact Fares and Affect Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Airlines for America (A4A), the industry trade organization for the leading U.S. airlines, today said the White House budget proposal to offset the deficit on the backs of airline customers by adding even more tax increases, would impact demand for air travel and ultimately cost jobs and service to communities. If the White House proposal is implemented, A4A said customers would be paying more in air taxes, meaning fewer will fly, which in turn will prompt airlines to reduce service, impacting hundreds of thousands of the 10 million good-paying jobs that commercial aviation creates.

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The White House is proposing over the next five years to triple the aviation security tax to $7.50 for each one-way trip in 2018, resulting in an $18 billion government windfall to be used for deficit reduction – not on aviation security programs. In addition, the proposal also seeks to add a new $100 per flight tax with a portion of those proceeds also going toward deficit reduction.

"It makes absolutely no sense at a time when we should be encouraging economic and business development enabled by travel and tourism that we would discourage flying by trying to balance the budget on the backs of airline customers with yet another tax," said A4A President and CEO Nicholas E. Calio. "It is the wrong approach and counter to leveraging commercial aviation – a key enabler of job growth and U.S. economic activity. By holding the line on federal aviation taxes paid by airlines and their customers, the airlines can maintain jobs and provide much needed service to communities."

Airline customers today pay about $61 in taxes on a typical $300 ticket, rates higher than alcohol and tobacco, products that are taxed to discourage use.

ABOUT A4A
Annually, commercial aviation helps drive more than $1 trillion in U.S. economic activity and more than 10 million U.S. jobs. A4A airline members and their affiliates transport more than 90 percent of all U.S. airline passenger and cargo traffic. For more information about the airline industry, visit www.airlines.org and follow us on Twitter @airlinesdotorg.

SOURCE Airlines for America