Why are we paying so much for flying and can we blame the wealthy for this?

[legalboxers]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ultra-wealthy-fly-private-costing-164523502.html
The ultra-wealthy who fly private are costing average flyers who won't ever use a private plane a lot of money

Private jet travel has surged in the US over the last few years and now accounts for one in every six flights handled by the Federal Aviation Administration's air-traffic controllers. But this heavily polluting form of travel, which is enjoyed by the ultra-wealthy, is hugely subsidized by average American taxpayers.

Private jet travelers pay just two percent of the taxes used to fund the FAA, according to a report published in May 2023 by the Institute for Policy Studies and Patriotic Millionaires.

Commercial flyers must pay a tax on every ticket equivalent to 7.5% of the fare price. But private flyers only pay jet-fuel tax. And while commercial plane tickets have increased in price in recent years, jet-fuel costs have remained steady, the report found, meaning that commercial travelers are ponying up an increasing portion of the taxes.

"Jet fuel taxes made up $186 million of the more than $8 billion in tax revenue that was allocated to the AATF in FY2021, or about 2 percent of the fund's total tax revenue," the report read. "Meanwhile, more than half of the AATF's tax revenue — $5.32 billion — came from passenger taxes."

Private jets also use almost 3,000 of the country's smaller airports that aren't used by any commercial airlines, but are funded in part by the FAA, the report found. So taxpayers are subsidizing infrastructure that commercial flyers don't use. The funds the FAA sends to these airports, known as general aviation airports, are generated in large part from taxes on commercial travelers.

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

If the wealthy is passing laws to raise rates on flying they are to blame.

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

Thanks for Mho :)