The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) filed comments in response to the Department of Transportation’s proposed amendment to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airport rate policies designed to encourage congestion-based pricing.

In its filing, NBTA “strenuously opposes the proposal to allow airports to impose new costs on air carriers which will be passed along to the traveling public and business travelers in particular.  The increased costs and likely reduction in flight options for business travelers would be a dual blow to NBTA members who are already suffering under an antiquated aviation system that the proposed rule cannot and will not solve.  Moreover, NBTA does not believe that the proposal would actually alleviate congestion in the particular airports and regions that are the most affected by current traffic woes.”

NBTA President & CEO, Kevin Maguire, CCTE, said, “The congestion pricing proposal is an answer in search of a question. We know the higher costs would raise ticket prices, but there is no reason to believe higher prices would solve congestion problems. Peak-time flights already cost more. If higher prices were the solution, the problem would have been fixed years ago.”

He continued, “The business travel community is glad to see that DOT and FAA are taking a hard look at the problems facing our air travel system. Our ability to travel and the U.S. economy depend on finding the right solutions. The technology exists to open airspace that currently goes unused, to improve our ability to fly in bad weather and to move more planes in and out of airports faster. Let’s focus on implementing those technologies with a Next Generation air transportation system for the twenty-first century, instead of pretending that yet another hidden tax on business travelers and American companies is going to improve airport congestion.”