FAA’s plan for AirVenture ATC user fees ‘troubling’

By AOPA Communications staff

AOPA on May 22 denounced an FAA plan  to charge the Experimental Aircraft Association for the travel costs, per diem  expenses, and overtime pay of the air traffic controllers it deploys to staff EAA  AirVenture, the association’s annual aviation fly-in, expo, and airshow, which  is also the largest gathering of civil aircraft in the world.

“This is extremely troubling news,”  said AOPA President Craig Fuller. “We’ve warned that the Obama administration  wants to hit general aviation with user fees, and that’s exactly what it’s  doing to the EAA and AirVenture. To depart from previous practice suggests that  the FAA has entered a new, pay-as-you-go era with little regard for safety.  General aviation already pays for FAA services through substantial fuel taxes.  These user fees—there is no other word for them—are a double taxation.”

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