Airports are facing a critical year on Capitol Hill, with several issues of importance on the agenda and a new administration in office to boot. PFC limits, stimulus funds and several other items were at the forefront of airport directors’ minds when they were contacted by ARN this month. Here’s what they had to say.
Ben DeCosta, Aviation General Manager, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International
ARN: Do you have a sense for how the Obama administration will differ in its outlook toward airports from how the Bush administration did?
DeCosta: The Obama administration has already taken a position on NextGen. My hope is that the administration will take concrete action to adequately fund NextGen as a priority, including the Airport Improvement Program and an increase of the passenger facility charge to support airport-related NextGen projects. Former President Bush was also committed to NextGen but decreased AIP. Furthermore, I am encouraged by the Obama administration’s focus on the global recession, which affects the aviation industry, by eliminating the AMT to help airports get into credit markets and adding $1B in stimulus money to both the FAA and TSA.
Read the rest of this interview as well as the interviews of Directors such as William DeCota, PANYNJ, Jeffrey Fegan, DFW, Jeff Hamiel, MSP, Louis Miller, TPA, and others in the upcoming September issue of Airport Revenue News.
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