Frank
 
 
  Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 69
 
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				 Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 2:59 pm    Post subject: YAK user fees | 
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				Just to change the subject..... 
 Got an email-gram from AOPA detailing examples  of just why they have opposed air traffic and airport landing user fees here in  the US. They relate the Canadian experiences and why it would be bad policy here  in the US (see below).  
 If they were to try and impose that on US  citizens I can tell you it wouldn't be long before these air traffic controllers  would be out of business. For example, the technology exists today to do away  with the need for ANY air traffic control system. With the level of technology  we have today it is eventually going to happen anyways.  
 We have the capability to build navigation and  guidance systems that have no need for ground based  control....Highways-In-The-Sky if you will. The technology for it exists  now............all we need is some impetus for us to adopt it. User fees would  do just that. Who was it that posted about "Unintended Consequences"? Here's the  perfect example.......Air traffic controllers get privatized, they get too  greedy and next thing you know we don't need them anymore because technology  displaced them. It can happen........eventually it will, I think.  
 Frank 
 USER FEES FAR FROM SUCCESSFUL IN  CANADA 
 The most vocal user fee proponents usually point north to Nav Canada to  
 demonstrate the "success" of the concept. Yet since the commercialization   
 of air traffic control in Canada and the imposition of direct fees for  
 ATC services, the system has struggled financially. Now Nav Canada wants  
 to impose new user fees on general aviation to try to make up for the  
 shortfall. AOPA, on behalf of U.S. citizens flying in Canada, is objecting.   
 "This proposal underscores why AOPA opposes a user fee-based system in the   
 United States," said Andy Cebula, AOPA executive vice president of government   
 affairs. "It illustrates why a user fee system does not provide stable  
 funding and reinforces AOPA's stance that Congress (or Parliament in the  
 case of Canada) is the appropriate 'board of directors' for a national air   
 transportation system." Nav Canada wants to start collecting new "daily  
 charges" from aircraft weighing less than three metric tons (less than  
 6,075 pounds) using eight major Canadian airports. The charge would start   
 at $5 a day and escalate to $10 a day by 2008. "The U.S. national air  
 transportation system is well served by the stable funding stream provided   
 by the existing combination of taxes and general fund contributions," said   
 Cebula. "We find no reason to support a different funding system in a foreign   
 country, and we encourage Nav Canada to reconsider the proposal and not  
 implement the proposed new fees." See AOPA Online  
 ( http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2006/060213navcanada.html  ).
 
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