Some Airports Could Set PFCs Under Senate FAA Bill

The Senate has approved a Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill that would establish a pilot program giving six airports the ability to set their own passenger facilities charges, which currently are capped at $4.50 and are used to back bonds.

The House may consider the bill or take action on its own version of an FAA bill this week, a congressional aide said yesterday.

However, the chamber is unlikely to settle on a bill that would provide long-term authorization for the FAA before adjourning at the end of this week for spring recess.

A long-term bill has been up in the air for more than two years.

The Senate voted unanimously on Monday to approve the legislation, sponsored by Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va., who chairs the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

Federal aviation programs including airport improvement grants and PFCs have operated under stopgap legislation since the last full authorization expired Sept. 30, 2007.

The current extension is set to expire March 31.

A bill introduced last week by House Transportation Committee chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn., would extend the airport and aviation programs through the beginning of July.

The House approved the bill by a voice vote last week and sent it to the Senate for consideration.

Oberstar’s bill would give lawmakers more time to hash out details of the full FAA authorization.

It also would provide $3 billion of airport improvement program funds for the period from Oct. 1, 2009, through July.

Rockefeller’s and Dorgan’s legislation, if approved, would allow up to six airports to test-drive any PFC amounts they want to charge.

Airports could collect the PFCs through the Internet or “in any other reasonable manner,” according to the legislation. But they would no longer be able to depend on airlines to apply the PFCs to air travel segments, prompting some head-scratching in the industry about how airports would collect the charges from passengers.

One source yesterday noted that airports have increasingly used technological methods to assess other kinds of fees, such as the landing fees charged to airlines.

The proposal is not quite what airport advocates have pushed for — a PFC cap increase to $7 from $4.50 that they say would increase airport revenue by up to $1.3 billion a year.

The cap has not been raised since 2000, when airport groups say construction costs were far lower than they are ­currently.

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Transportation industry Washington
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