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April 25, 1968
Page 281
Aviation DAILY

ATA OFFERS NEW AIRPORT PLAN BASED ON 2% TICKET TAX

The Air Transport Assn/ yesterday proposed a new airport financing plan based on a federal trust fund that would pay up to 75 percent of debt service costs of airport bond issues and provide short-term loans for planning, land acquisition and preliminary construction of "urgently needed projects" before long-term financial plans are made.
The trust fund would be supported by an additional 2 percent tax on domestic airline tickets and a flat $2 charge on each passenger leaving the United States for a foreign point.
These grants and loans would be available to small publicly-owned "reliever" airports as well as airline fields and would cover construction, alteration and improvement of all airfield facilities, ATA President Stuart G. Tipton told the Cleveland Traffic Club. The trust find would be would be administered by the Secretary of Transportation.
The new ATA plan could provide the basis for the compromise that Sen. A.S. Mike Monroney (D.-Okla.) has insisted must be reached within the aviation industry before Congress will establish a new airport development policy (DAILY, March 12). It includes elements of the passenger tax system backed by airport groups and represents a reversal of earlier airline opposition to any type of head tax.
Monroney's Proposals Listed
Nearly all groups have favored some type of trust fund, and Monroney's own aviation subcommittee suggested that revenue sources for it might include the two percent ticket tax and $2 charge for internal passengers (DAILY, January 24).
However, ATA's partial acceptance of the passenger tax concept may not staisfy airport spokesmen, who have advocated a special charge collected form each passenger and returned to the specific airport he uses. The ATA plan also skirts the question of new airline fuel taxes which the airline oppose but other industry groups believe should be instituted.
"The proposal meets three major tests of a truly national airport program," Tipton asserted. "It provides capital funding without dippling into the general treasury, it is available to all communities served by airlines which meet the few, simple requirements, and it aids the major users of the airports, commercial air carriers and general aviation alike."
Tipton urged the government to act on the program "as soon as possible. It is clear th at there must be federal leadership if we are to have an airport system designed to meet the nation's demands for air transportation of the next decade," he said.
The ATA president also prodded the Johnson administration to reveal its long-promised plan to improve the nation's airway system. "The aviation industry hopes the (transportation) department will come forward soon because the en route delays to both passenger and airline are expensive and are mounting," he said. "Air traffic control is a priority item and government should get on with the job with all deliberate speed."

SAS SIX-MONTH TRAFFIC RISES 16%

Scandinavian Airlines System yesterday reported that it carried 221 million revenue ton-kilometers of all types of traffic in the first six months of its fiscal year, ended March 31, an increase of 16 percent over the same 1966-67 period. Available ton-kilometers totaled 454 million, up 29 percent.
Overall load factor was down form 55.5 percent to 49.9 percent, reflecting the capacity boost provided by new jets added to the fleet in recent months, SAS said. Passenger traffic for the six months amounted to 1,552,000,000 revenue passenger-kilometers, up 16 percent, with available set-kilometers up 23 percent to 3,487,000,000. Cargo increased 18 percent to 70.3 million ton-kilometers and mail rose 4 percent to 13.3 million ton-kilometers. For the month of March, overall traffic totaled 39.7 million ton-kilometers, up 22 percent, with capacity up 34 percent to 80.4 million, and load factor at 51.2 percent against 55.3 percent.