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8 AMENDMENTS TO THE FEDERAL AIRPORT ACT

The airport facilities operated by the New York Port Authority generates by far the largest air traffic in the United States. The committee received an interesting comparison between the present level of $63 million for assistance to all the public airports of the country and its Territories and possessions and the total amounts of committed for past and future development of these New York airports. At the end of 1957, the New York Port Authority had invested over $207 million in the New York regional airport system. In 1957 alone almost $65 million was invested. In 1958, $107 million is budgeted. It is anticipated that a further investment will be made in the approximate amount of $450 million over the next 10 years. Since 1947, the New York Port Authority has received from the Federal Government, under the Airport Act, $12 1/2 million or 5.7 percent of the total $207 million invested in the airport facilities. It was stated to the committee that at 30 other large airports in the United States the Federal share averages about 20 percent, or $1 Federal-aid funds for each $5 total investment. The director of aviation for Kansas City stated that the total investment of that community in its 2 airports amounted to $136,450,000, of which approximately 14 percent, $5,076,000, has been obtained from the Federal Government from the very beginning. Kansas City Airport revenue in 1957 amounted to $150,000 more than the operating and maintenance cost. Bonds outstanding on the airports required debt service payments of approximately $850,000. therefore, it was necessary for the city to pay the bulk of the bond retirement and interest out of its general fund. This example promoted Mr. Ronald White, the director of aviation for Kansas City, to state to the committee:

It is obvious out airports are far from being self-supporting and with the excessive costs of facilities to be furnished in the immediate future for jet operations, as well as the cost incident to the normal increase in volume of all types of air traffic, it is doubtful if airports in Kansas City or any other comparable city will be self-supporting for many years to come. 

The committee properly concluded, therefore, that the capital investment needed to bring airport facilities up to present and future requirements of the Nation's air transportation need is far beyond the capabilities of local communities without continued assistance from the Federal Government.

In this connection, the committee desires to note that its attention has been invited to a recent statue enacted by the legislature of the State of Kentucky which seemingly requires that airport operators, in that State, should adjust their schedule of charges for the use of airport facilities in order to recover the full amount of the capital investment in such facilities, including the amount of the Federal contribution therein. While the committee has not had the opportunity to examine this subject in detail and in all its ramifications,