The big airline executives and their lobbying organization, the Air Transport Association, have spent the last several months engaging in a campaign of mistruths and deception to sell Congress on a risky new user fee scheme that would shift their tax burden onto general aviation aircraft.
As it turns out, the airlines tried the same trick in 1997. Then, however, they were blaming the low-cost carriers:
* 1997: “We’ve carried them [low-cost carriers] for several decades now.” Tim Doke, spokesman for American Airlines.
* 2007: “Unfortunately, what we have today is aÉ lopsided funding system where one group of usersÉ subsidizes another user group Ð corporate jets.” James May, Air Transport Association.
Read on to see how the airlines’ attempt to get another tax break is just more of the same old, same old.