"The fact is that from infrastructure to technology to labor, the airlines drive the costs and general aviation is a very small part of that," Baker said.
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The starkly different tax rates have been a long-simmering point of contention between airlines and their brethren in the corporate aviation world, and they help explain why the two groups have been at each other’s throats on a House proposal to move the air-traffic system out of the FAA and into a nonprofit corporation.
In Canada, where air traffic is managed by such a corporation, private jets pay less than airliners, but at rates that are far more equitable than in the U.S. Such an arrangement would cost American private-plane operators hundreds of millions of dollars a year, according to FAA documents and a Bloomberg assessment of sample flights.
Airlines have supported moving to such a private system, while private-aviation groups are adamant opponents.
However, even critics of the tax rates concede the situation isn’t likely to change anytime soon. The powerful lobby representing high-end private aircraft operators has successfully fought off several such attempts in recent decades.
Aviation Taxes
Any potential changes in the taxes on private aviation were effectively taken off the table this year by the powerful chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Pennsylvania Republican Bill Shuster.
In order to mute opposition to his plan to create a nonprofit company to operate the air-traffic system, Shuster’s bill would keep the current tax levels for private planes. Shuster’s attempt to mollify private plane owners has had little effect as they continue to oppose his proposal. The bill has passed the committee and is awaiting a vote before the full House.
The taxes on different aviation sectors fund the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which helps pay for the FAA, air-traffic control and airport construction projects. Last year the trust fund contributed $14.3 billion toward the FAA’s $16.3 billion budget, or 88 percent.