The Friday before AirVenture is supposed to be a really exciting time with friends gathering from all around the world to come hang out for good times and a week of spouse-numbing airplane speak. We’re actually hosting the Plane Crazy Down Under guys at our home in Chicago and it’s been great to connect with people we’ve known only as voices from another hemisphere. Luckily David Vanderhoof from the Airplane Geeks arrived to keep the US contingent in balance. But a discussion we had just this morning over breakfast about how the crushing user fee structure has annihilated general aviation industry in Australia was eye-opening. The Airplane Geeks are planning an entire show soon to talk about it, because it’s THAT critical to keep flying as we know it.
This year, AirVenture has a massive stormcloud hovering nearby … just close enough to realize it’s there, but not yet upon us (and no, I’m not talking about those Wisconsin thunderstorms). The topic is user fees – yes, again – for all aspects of business and general aviation. When I wrote about this a few months back as an idea hiding in the wings, I actually was hoping I was wrong. I guess I wasn’t.
And this time, user fees are not simply an agenda being shoved at us by another piece of our own industry the way the airlines came at us a few years ago. This time it’s coming from the folks we sent to Washington to represent us. [Read more…] about User (as in you pay) Fees (as in you pay more)