Camel, Meet Tent

Recent rants in this space discussed the FAA’s role in Washington’s ongoing budget battles and, especially, proposed low-activity tower closures. After a couple of weeks of air traffic slowdowns brought on by ATC staffing furloughs and primarily affecting airline passengers in the northeast, Congress demonstrated it can move quickly: It passed a measure basically exempting the FAA—but no other agencies—from the sequestration process and allowing it to move its money around to eliminate ATC slowdowns. So far, the FAA’s actions haven’t had a widespread impact on general aviation. That could change.

Key Takeaways:

• Congress exempted the FAA from sequestration to prevent ATC slowdowns, primarily for airlines, but the agency subsequently began demanding user fees from general aviation (GA) events for air traffic services.
• The FAA requested $500,000 from the EAA to cover ATC costs for AirVenture, a service previously provided by the FAA, prompting strong opposition and a Congressional lobbying campaign from the EAA.
• The EAA and the article interpret these demands as an alarming "camel's nose under the tent," signaling the FAA's new direction to impose user fees on general aviation despite long-standing Congressional opposition.

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