And that money couldn’t come at a better time, said Sharon Pinkerton, a lobbyist for the Air Transport Association — and former counsel to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-Fla.).
“The airline industry is sick, it’s anemic,” Pinkerton said at a Senate hearing last week. “In the last 10 years, we’ve had to shed 150,000 jobs [a nice way to say fired a bunch of people] due to our $55 billion of losses,” she said. “We have to be able to cover the cost of flying folks.”
Apparently it’s not enough to charge for blankets, bags and leg room and to stick it to active-duty military members who need to re-book their flights.
So now the airlines may be losing money but they are losing less, having effectively gotten more than a 7.5 percent increase in fares.
Of the 10 largest passenger airlines in the ATA, only Alaska Airlines decided it would stop collecting the 7.5 percent tax on tickets — along with some other significant fees. That would let its customers reap the benefits, effectively cutting their ticket prices. (Easy for Alaska Airlines to do, because it actually makes money on a regular basis.)
Now, if this all gets worked out, will the legislation put the 7.5 percent tax back on top of the new higher ticket prices? Would that be voting for a tax increase? Uh-oh.
Tax dollars at work
Speaking of flying, we’re happy to report that the FAA problems are not going to thwart our members of Congress from taking fact-finding trips abroad this summer to beat the stifling heat here. There was never really any danger, because they use military jets.
So House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) and ranking Democrat Norm Dicks (Wash.), plus a yet-to-be determined number of committee members, are taking off this month for 10 days in Europe to meet with top officials and talk about military operations and expenditures there.
“Members will conduct vigorous, boots-on-the-ground oversight over the use of American tax-dollars,” a committee spokesperson e-mailed. (So bring boots in addition to flip-flops.)
Stops include sites in Britain, Germany and Austria. We had heard a stop in Italy was possible but in August that would surely have to be in the north, near the Dolomites. Naturally, spouses and staff members will have to go along to help find those facts.
Presidential party
The Rose Garden 50th-birthday bash for President Obama on Thursday night — a sit-down buffet of chicken and hot dogs and steak and salads and sides and wine — featured a sprinkling of some of the usual glitterati — Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg, Charles Barkley, Grant Hill, Emmitt Smith.
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