From: stephen@sprunk.org

On 20-May-14 22:29, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> Stephen Sprunk  wrote:
>> On 20-May-14 17:29, conklin wrote:
>>> "Adam H. Kerman"  wrote:
>>>> Still want to hear from George as to why special taxes on
>>>> passengers are required if the airport isn't being subsidized.
>>>
>>> Taxes on passengers are not "subsidies."
>>
>> They are if they're not collected in proportion to their usage and
>> by the provider of what they're using.
>>
>> The PFC, which is a flat amount per user levied by and collected by
>> the airport, is a user fee.
>
> You've got conklin disease and should be ashamed of yourself. It's
> not a user fee. It's a tax. Passengers don't consume airport
> resources in proportion to the charge they've paid. What do you think
> it represents, a washroom attendant fee? Seat rental?
>
> No one goes to an airport to see the damn airport. They go to
> travel. Airlines and concessions should pay rental and that should be
> high enough to operate the airport and retire bonds. If it's not,
> something's wrong.

A single charge only works if there is one dimension to consumption, but
an airport (or train station, etc.) has multiple dimensions, which is
why the airlines pay per-gate fees, per-landing fees and per-passenger fees.

Think about it.  If an airline rents a gate for 10pax/day, that puts a
much lower load on the terminal facility than the same airline renting
the same gate for 1000pax/day, so should they should pay the same in
both cases?

That airlines pass one part of their rent on to passengers as a separate
line item while they include the others in the base fare is immaterial
to the multi-dimensional nature of the costs and fees.

I'm not claiming PFCs are perfect, but no user fee ever is; one can find
plenty of problems with tolled highways, for instance, but that doesn't
mean we should get rid of tolls and charge every car owner an annual
rent that doesn't vary with their usage at all.

S

--
Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

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