FAA funding impasse halts air projects - Taxes go uncollected but airlines don't pass along savings

FAA funding impasse halts air projects - Taxes go uncollected but airlines don't pass along savings

www.detnews.com

Among the funds going uncollected are a 7.5 percent sales tax on airline tickets, a $3.70 per takeoff segment tax for domestic flights, a $16.30 departure and arrival tax for international flights and a special $8.20 tax on flights between Alaska and Hawaii.

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc., Michigan's largest carrier, lost $318 million in the first quarter of this year. But as long as Congress can't come to agreement, Delta has been one of the airlines reaping an estimated additional $25 million a day in revenue that otherwise would be collected in taxes, said Rick Seaney, head of Fare

(visit the link for the full news article)

So congress does not pass FAA taxes, which prevent the airlines from collecting taxes. Instead of passing the savings onto the customers, the airlines increase their fares. It is interesting to see how these big corporations do business. Aren't they all asking for tax breaks that they say they will create jobs with? Airlines just got a tax break and make an extra 25 million a day. They could hire 1,000 people for a year paying them $25,000 a year each day. That is 365,000 new jobs a year just for delta if they wanted. Do you think they will? Never.

www.detnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by ExPostFacto


Whoah, whoah whoah... 25 million a day???

I'm gonna have to take a deeper look into this.

A bit flummoxed at this....seems more and more, things just don't seem to make sense!

Not terribly shocked to hear this.

Any idea how many fees, charges and taxes you pay on your phone, electricity or cable bill that are now obsolete? Do you still pay these obsolete, no longer applicable charges?

You betcha!

Are they going into the government coffers?

Nope!

Somebody ought to sue their #sses and bring this sort of behavior to the light of day. Now that would be fun!

Yeah but it won't last, and how much do you want to bet that the taxes will be backdated when they eventually apply?

If not it's a bit of a windfall for sure tho.

FAA deals with loss of an estimated $200 million weekly in tax revenue it's unauthorized to collect and spend. From The Detroit News: detnews.com...

200 Million in tax revenue a week that the FAA is losing. Can these projects really run in the 200 million a week mark?

(as I said before, I have to look deeper into this, I am not very familiar with the way they operate, it just seems like a ridiculously large amount of money... no wonder the people in this country are broke, plus adding what Hessling mentioned about the obsolete no longer applicable charges)

Given the airlines keep issuing profit warnings I would say they where given this loophole to booster said profits..

They can't allow one of those to fail now can they? it would wreck the illusion things are getting better which seem only to come to light when they hit an impasse.

I suspect if people dug into other areas/industries we would find similar loopholes that are allowing other corporates to survive/booster their profit statements.

As sickening as it is, I suspect they are using many loopholes to ensure the illusion of meagre growth is being maintained

reply to post by thoughtsfull


Airlines have often failed in the US - they are definitely not on the "too big to be allowed to fail" list!!

Many have gone into Chapter 11 & emerged of course - but there's a whole wiki page devoted to airline failures!! en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by Aloysius the Gaul
reply to post by thoughtsfull

 

Airlines have often failed in the US - they are definitely not on the "too big to be allowed to fail" list!!

Many have gone into Chapter 11 & emerged of course - but there's a whole wiki page devoted to airline failures!! en.wikipedia.org...

edit on 26-7-2011 by Aloysius the Gaul because: (no reason given)

And I have spent many years working for such airlines (Pam AM, TWA and Air2000 tho I always thought Dan'dare should have been let go and not supported) support does exist in many forms to prop up said industry.

And while it might be fun for you to laugh at me or poke fun at me, I honestly feel that right now, at this juncture NO sizeable corporate would be allowed to fail..

heck the UK Gov now has a stake in the HMV Group to ensure there is no visible collapse in the UK high street.. and I feel the same is happening across the board in a vain attempt to prop up Western economies..

So you can laugh at me as much as you like, I stand by the logic of my assertions.

Yes I made a thread about this too.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Got some good information from one of the posters who broke down the taxes collected by the airlines as well as quotes from the airlines admitting that they decided to just keep the cash. Now I am all for the idea of “Free Market” so I can’t really blame them. If we the people still continue to pay this price it must be what the ticket is” worth” after all. If it was too much we would just stop flying and they would lower the price.

Originally posted by Hessling
Not terribly shocked to hear this.

Any idea how many fees, charges and taxes you pay on your phone, electricity or cable bill that are now obsolete? Do you still pay these obsolete, no longer applicable charges?

You betcha!

Are they going into the government coffers?

Nope!

Somebody ought to sue their #sses and bring this sort of behavior to the light of day. Now that would be fun!

Once I looked on my phone bill and realized one of the charges was a "non-mandatory" fee. It was an OPTIONAL fee hidden on the bill. I had been paying it for years because I never looked closely enough. I called the phone company and they confirmed that I did not have to pay that $3 monthly fee.

The corporations run America - and they run amok.

So? They aren't obligated to do anything and if you don't like it then don't purchase their services.

reply to post by Majestic Lumen


It is supposedly $200 million a week for the entire industry. But for Delta alone it is $25 million a day. You are right the numbers don't match.

Thousands of people losing their jobs and yet, its ok, because the Republicans know what they're doing .

God. Congress is full of scum. Absolute Scum.

It's pretty complicated - there are tie-ups with labour laws, and subsidies to small volume airport services - as much as $3700 per passenger in the worst case (a small airport hat only gets about 500 pax/year!!).

But the total amount is relatively small - a total of $14 million per annum.

It seems that the Republican fforts to cut such subsides are mainly directed at airports in the areas of Democrat Senators, including the Senate Majority leader.

But the House temporary bill also would end $14 million in subsidies that provided commercial airline service to 16 rural airports. The law was written in a way that appeared to single out for closing airports in the states of prominent Senate Democrats, including the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada.

From Flight Safety foundation daily email - no link available sorry - but you can subscribe here - fsinfo.org...

Subtle not!!

I don't know if there are similar airports in Republican areas - if there weer it would only be fair to be even handed wouldn't it?? And if no then the Dems may have scored an own goal over the years!