Proposal Would Not Improve Congestion, Would Only Raise Ticket Prices
CONTACT: Caleb Tiller, +1 703-684-0836, ext. 138
Nicole Hayes, +1 703-684-0836, ext. 133
Washington, DC and Alexandria, VA (April 3, 2008) -- The National Business Travel Association (NBTA), the leading advocacy group for the business travel industry, today filed comments in response to the Department of Transportation’s proposed amendment to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airport rate policies designed to encourage congestion-based pricing.
In its filing, NBTA “strenuously opposes the proposal to allow airports to impose new costs on air carriers which will be passed along to the traveling public and business travelers in particular. The increased costs and likely reduction in flight options for business travelers would be a dual blow to NBTA members who are already suffering under an antiquated aviation system that the proposed rule cannot and will not solve. Moreover, NBTA does not believe that the proposal would actually alleviate congestion in the particular airports and regions that are the most affected by current traffic woes.”
NBTA President & CEO, Kevin Maguire, CCTE, said, “The congestion pricing proposal is an answer in search of a question. We know the higher costs would raise ticket prices, but there is no reason to believe higher prices would solve congestion problems. Peak-time flights already cost more. If higher prices were the solution, the problem would have been fixed years ago.”
He continued, “The business travel community is glad to see that DOT and FAA are taking a hard look at the problems facing our air travel system. Our ability to travel and the U.S. economy depend on finding the right solutions. The technology exists to open airspace that currently goes unused, to improve our ability to fly in bad weather and to move more planes in and out of airports faster. Let’s focus on implementing those technologies with a Next Generation air transportation system for the twenty-first century, instead of pretending that yet another hidden tax on business travelers and American companies is going to improve airport congestion.”
Read NBTA’s complete filing.
The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) is the world’s premier business travel organization. U.S.-based NBTA and its regional subsidiaries – NBTA Asia Pacific, NBTA Canada and NBTA Mexico – serve more than 3,200 members in 30 nations around the globe. NBTA has 41 U.S. Chapters with more than 5,000 members. NBTA members are corporate and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers, who collectively manage and direct more than US$170 billion of global business travel expenditures annually. The association provides industry-leading networking, education & professional development, research, news & information, and advocacy. For more information, visit www.nbta.org.
###