(06-05-2017 02:01 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote: I think it should be on a per flight basis...and private jets should pay as much as a commercial jet. My guess is that they will charge a per pax fee, in order to make commercial travelers subsidize the wealthy.
The question would be, in my mind: does it "cost" (in whatever sense that's valid, for this context) an ATC "more", "the same", or "less" to track/control/whatever a private jet vs a commercial jet?
That IMO should be what determines the per plane cost. In other words, if it "costs" (time, effort, technology, etc.) the ATC more to track/control/whatever a commercial jet than a private jet, then each commercial jet should have a higher user fee.
Without knowing anything else, my (naive?) instinct says that it doesn't "cost" ATC any more to track/control/whatever even the largest commercial airliner than it does a private jet, and if that is true then the fee should be the same.
(06-05-2017 02:07 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote: The essential element in ATC is maintaining up-to-date technology. Profit-seeking enterprises can do that much easier than nonprofits.
I don't see why that would be true.
(06-05-2017 02:08 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote: There's this false narrative that nonprofit is somehow better than profit-seeking. It's not.
Why is it a true narrative that profit-seeking is better than nonprofit?
Why can't they just be the same, all other things equal?
(06-05-2017 02:39 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote: As long as they are collecting user fees to cover operations instead of taxes, and selling their own debt to fund capital improvements, they are behaving enough like a profit-seeking enterprise to suit me.
OK. I think this is a fair concept.
(06-06-2017 04:46 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote: My concept would be a privatized enterprise that would run airports, ATC, and airport security including what TSA does now. It works in Europe, so why not here?
Again, I think this is fair.
The keys would be: 1) the collection of user fees would not really (if at all) alter the operations/logistics of how airports, ATC, and/or security lines run now, and 2) there's a large enough mass of people who use these services that the user fee per passenger should be reasonably low enough to not boost prices up too painfully.