Proposal To Jack Up Airline Fees – As Much As $15 Extra For Domestic Tickets

President Obama released his budget which has a line in there for airline fees. The proposal calls for an increase from the now $4.50 per segment facility charge to $8 per segment.

The government estimates that this increase could bring in an additional $2.8 billion for airport facilities. This is a different fee from the one we saw hiked up last year – the TSA fee – which went from $2.50 per segment to a flat $5.60 per leg. This fee is the airport facility charge that is levied on revenue tickets, not award tickets. So, if you are used to traveling on award tickets, you are still safe there. But, if you have paid tickets, you could see your domestic ticket (with a connection) go up an additional $15 per roundtrip.

This is the current fee on domestic tickets with connections – under the new proposal, it would jump up $15.

This is not the first time such a proposal has been introduced. Last year, it was with the angle that it would allow larger airports to raise the fee if they wanted. But this time around, the proposal seems to be a fee that would be raised by the government. Of course, airports are excited about this. Airlines are not. It will certainly remain to be seen what ends up happening with this fee. In the whole scheme of the budget, this updated fee proposal is not a big deal but it would be a bigger deal for the passengers who do fly on paid tickets – which is a large population of the traveling public.

It is always amazing to me to see what kind of facility charges are in various parts of travel purchases. That is one of the larger fees at many airports for rental cars – facility fees for the large rental facilities. My personal “favorite” car rental fee is the fees at Kansas City’s rental car companies – a $4 per day arena fund to pay for the Sprint Center (the sports facility).

Source: LA Times