US aviation body losing $30m a day in taxes

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it's losing $30 million (Dh110.16 million) a day in taxes because the US Congress let the agency's revenue-raising authority expire. Airlines can't collect excise taxes on tickets, fuel and cargo until Congress passes legislation to extend the FAA's authority, Randy Babbitt, the agency's administrator, said on Monday on a conference call from Washington. The FAA operated through July 22 under a series of 20 short-term extensions, after its multi-year funding legislation expired in 2007. Most major airlines have raised base ticket prices by at least 7.5 per cent to capture the forgone federal revenue, Rick Seaney, chief executive officer of FareCompare.com, a website that tracks ticket prices, said in an e-mailed report. "With the added ticket revenue and the reduction in sales tax on jet fuel, this could be a major boon for airline bottom lines if the issue goes unresolved for several weeks," Seaney wrote in an email. Article continues below The deadlock in Congress continued on Monday as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said he wan not planning to bring a House-approved FAA extension bill to a Senate vote. Support for airports Senate Democrats oppose the House measure to continue FAA funding through September 16 because it would end taxpayer support for flights to 13 small-town airports, including one in Reid's home state. The taxes, which go into the airport and airway trust fund, are used for airport improvements and salaries of workers deemed non-essential, such as computer specialists and administrative assistants. The agency furloughed about 4,000 employees in 35 states and contractors have stopped work on airport modernisation projects and new air-traffic control towers. Air-traffic controllers, considered essential employees, remain on the job. Projects suffer Travellers booking flights since the authority lapsed are "generally paying the same ticket prices as they did last week," Steve Lott, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, the airlines' Washington-based trade association, said in an e-mail. Inspections of five airports that need to be certified to handle Boeing's new 747-800 are "in jeopardy" and may not be completed by a September 1 deadline, Babbitt said. Certification of the jetliner isn't at risk, Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman, said by telephone. The agency also halted $370 million in contracts with Jacobs Engineering Group, based in Pasadena, California, for design, engineering and planning services for existing and future air-traffic facilities, according to the FAA.