The Billions of Dollars Driving a Wedge Between U.S. Airlines and Airports
Skift Take
Improvements to aviation infrastructure are necessary if the U.S. plans to stay at the lead. It's simply a matter of who will pay.
More than finding themselves at cross-purposes on the Open Skies debate, the lobbying groups that represent airlines, airports, and their professionals in the United States are engaged in an uncivil war over funding of future of aviation infrastructure.
The three players are the airlines' Airlines for America (A4A), the Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA), and the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE). At the heart of this debate between the ground and the skies is a controversial Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) proposed by U.S. airports which would raise funds to support improvements for airport infrastructure. The airports' organization reports it will need $75.7 billion through 2019 to meet the requirements of an upcoming aviation infrastructure modernization bill.
To help cover these needs, airports would receive a fee up to $4.50 for each airline passenger.
Airlines disagree with the proposed PFC program. The A4A characterizes the fee as an "airport tax" and labels airport’s claims of a shortfall in funding as “a crisis of invented proportions.”
As the organization wrote this March: “The truth is airports have the resources they need. Through partnerships with the airlines, billions
