ANALYSIS: US airlines’ opposition to ‘passenger facility charge’ rings hollow

By Kevin Mitchell, Founder
Business Travel Coalition

The Business Travel Coalition (BTC) is calling on the U.S. Senate to reject airlines’ arguments that increasing the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) would harm demand for travel.

Kevin Mitchell
Founder, BTC
Airlines argue that increasing the PFC by $4* will meaningfully dampen demand for travel. However, when airlines state “adding another $3.2 billion tax hike on American travelers simply cannot be justified,” that is when one really needs to pay attention.

Of course, $4 billion dollars plus in annual baggage fees is no burden at all! As with Kevin Spacey’s character Frank Underwood, in Netflix’s House of Cards, there is always more than meets the eye when it comes to interpreting airlines’ intentions in Washington debates.

Indeed, airlines cannot in reality be concerned with a $4 increase to the PFC and its impact on demand. If they were this sensitive to such a small increase - the first PFC cap increase since 2000 – then they would have endeavored, for example, to aggressively stimulate demand in 2011 when the federal ticket tax lapsed.

Instead, they raised base fares and pocketed a $28.5 million dollar per day windfall. Likewise, despite the blizzard of new and increasing ancillary fees http://www.thetravelpro.us/2017/09/report-ancillary-revenue-for-66.html , ranging up to $200 – demand remains historically high. There is often little correlation between airlines’ rhetoric and their behavior.

In fact, the PFC debate has everything to do with airlines wanting unwarranted control – over the passenger, the airports, the corporate travel department, the travel agent, the distribution system, their regulator the U.S. DOT, Congressional delegations from hub airport states, relevant Congressional committees, the press, foreign Open Skies partners and airports.

Now that they have secured their antitrust-immunized global alliances and domestic consolidation they especially want to control capacity and competition. This power-play behavior over PFC funding is all about airlines seeking control over domestic and foreign competition, i.e. investments in airports that can add capacity and attract new domestic and foreign airlines, which in turn increases competition and consumer choice and lowers airfares.

Airlines need to understand that they are just one stakeholder among many in this debate. The U.S. has a national policy goal of increasing foreign tourists from some 75 million annually today to 100 million by 2021. In reaching that goal, millions of good jobs will have been created, but we will need to compete with other countries for tourists and, as such, we will need modern, efficient and customer-oriented airports. If airlines successfully control the PFC level, as sure as the sun rises in the East, they will do for the airport experience what they have done for the cabin experience.

Congress should use the PFC debate as a prism through which to understand that the U.S. airline industry is in its endgame phase where some airline participants seek to 1) control price transparency by withholding ancillary fee information, or changing terms like fuel surcharge to “carrier imposed charge” to sidestep DOT oversight, 2) control its regulator, the U.S. DOT, by undermining its consumer-protection authority and 3) control competitive entry and capacity by blocking foreign carriers and sabotaging the PFC increase. Even Frank Underwood would wince at this belligerent airline behavior.

Read additional BTC analysis on this issue at http://btcnews.co/1OzABsi.

Editor's note: The current maximum PFC is $4.50, according to faa.gov. Airports use these fees to fund FAA-approved projects that enhance safety, security, or capacity; reduce noise; or increase air carrier competition.

Visit my main page at TheTravelPro.us for more news, reviews, and personal observations on the world of upmarket travel.



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