September 27, 2007
The Honorable Mary E. Peters
Secretary of Transportation
Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave. SE
Washington, DC 20590
Dear Secretary Peters:
In anticipation of your meeting with stakeholders this afternoon, I again urge the Department of Transportation (DOT) to focus on increasing airspace capacity in the New York metropolitan area rather than artificially constraining demand through market based mechanisms. The Air Transport Association (ATA) and its member airlines remain solidly opposed to congestion pricing as a solution to flight delays.
We fundamentally disagree that the appropriate response to strong customer demand for air transportation to the New York-New Jersey region is to raise the cost of flying there. Imposing taxes – and we need to be very clear that congestion pricing means imposing new taxes on consumers – and regulatory constraints simply mask the failure to utilize available capacity at JFK. The real solution is increase system capacity by modernizing the air traffic control system, and we have offered near-term solutions to begin that process.
In discussing airline scheduling, Acting Administrator Sturgell very accurately said in his congressional testimony yesterday, “understandably, these schedules are largely a response to market demand.” We and, more importantly, our customers wholeheartedly agree. Congestion pricing will simply add yet another tax on the flying and shipping public.
Congestion pricing amounts to higher prices to drive away average travelers in favor of just those who can pay top dollar and to reduce service to smaller communities. That is not what the public wants. If Congress allowed a congestion pricing regime to be implemented, it would not apply to some classes of users. Even if higher prices applied to some, any potential reduction in congestion would be undermined by likely exemptions for general aviation, small communities, new entrants and international flights, as we have seen in the past.
As acknowledged in prior regulatory proposals, neither the DOT nor the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has the authority to impose congestion pricing. Congestion pricing is a
tax. Nothing in Federal law authorizes either the DOT or the FAA to impose such a tax, and no such power can be inferred from the authority of the FAA to manage the airspace. Congress, and only Congress, can impose a tax.
This Administration properly prides itself on embracing free-market solutions and opposing unnecessary tax increases. The reality is that congestion pricing is a tax that will limit access to our national air transportation system, take the pressure off expanding the system and enable those who oppose airport and airways expansion. It is bad economics and bad public policy. Increasing aviation capacity is the only appropriate response to the public's needs, and in the long run, the only response the public will accept.
What is required to fix the ills of our air-transportation system is the leadership and vision to accelerate the implementation of airspace redesign in the Northeast and to embrace a fair funding mechanism to build the Next Generation Air Transportation System to supply the needs of a growing economy. We all can – and should – work toward achieving those goals.
ATA members look forward to working with you and your colleagues in the DOT in this important endeavor.