The Senate Appropriations Committee recently advanced the Fiscal Year 2018 Department of Transportation funding bill.
The bill includes a measure to increase local Passenger Facility Charges (PFC) to $8.50 for originating passengers and Airport Improvement Program (AIP) funding to $3.6 billion.
It was introduced by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jack Reed (D-RI).
“Today the Senate Appropriations Committee, on a broad bipartisan basis, broke the infrastructure investment log-jam that has bedeviled the Congress for far too long,” Todd Hauptli, American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) president and CEO, said. “The legislation…will go a long way toward closing down the infrastructure investment gap that airports have struggled with for well over a decade. It is often said that the Appropriations Committee is where the rubber meets the road and today the rubber met the runway. Airports are excited that help is on the way.”
The PFC was last increased in 2000. Since 2008, $30 billion has been collected in baggage fees. These funds have not gone into the aviation trust fund.
AIP has not been increased since 2012. Funding has been $3.35 million annually.