Anyone who has sat on the tarmac for hours, navigated a crowded, crumbling terminal or languished in long TSA lines knows that our nation’s airports need help. Politicians from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton agree. But the current airport funding system provides little flexibility to make things any better. What to do?
First, it’s important to know a little bit about the congressionally concocted funding scheme that keeps U.S. airports stuck in the last century.
Here’s how it “works.” Congress applies a mix of federal taxes and fees to the base airfare for each flight, which fund government services like air traffic control, TSA screening, safety inspections and airport upgrades. These taxes typically account for 13 to 16 percent of the total ticket price, although their individual rates have almost nothing to do with the actual cost of the services being provided for each flight.
