Quote:
Originally Posted by ijusluvit
..........Congress will adjourn for five weeks before approving the funding of the FAA budget.
So until they feel like convening again, those self-centered idiots have laid off 70,000 construction workers, stopped 214 approved and ongoing airport renovation projects which were all previously approved and ongoing. And until the budget is approved, the government cannot legally collect hundreds of millions of dollars in airline taxes. All this tax money has been scooped up immediately and pocketed by the airlines. The airlines response to hiking prices by the amount of the uncollected taxes is that they have nothing to do with it. "Consumers and market competition set ticket prices". Another wonderful example of unregulated free enterprise bringing out the very best in our large corporations.
In my mind, there is no better definition of 'obscenity'.
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I think the
mockery of us taxpayers lies more in the lack of a federal budget approval in over 800 days than in "unregulated free enterprise".
You said it best, with "those self-centered idiots".
BTW, 2009 profit/loss statements show 5 of 9 U.S. airlines running at significant loss. It doesn't look like they are doing all that great in that "unregulated" free market.
AirTran +$135 million (profit)
Alaska Air +$122 million (profit)
Southwest +$99 million (profit)
JetBlue +$58 million (profit)
USAirways -$205 million (loss)
Continental -$282 million (Loss)
United Airlines – $651 million (loss)
Delta -$1.2 billion (loss)
American -$1.5 billion (loss)
http://www.consumertraveler.com/toda...oses-the-most/
And, not all the airlines raised their ticket prices because of the tax not being collected:
"Because of the partial shutdown, the FAA will not collect the roughly $200 million received each week from airline ticket taxes. For example, a passenger pays about $61 in total taxes for a $300 round-trip ticket. As a result of the partial shutdown, passengers have to pay only half the taxes, a savings of roughly $30.
Some airlines are allowing their customers to take advantage of the tax break, AAA Auto Club South notes. That group includes Alaska Airlines, Virgin America, Spirit, Hawaiian Airlines and Frontier, the organization says."
http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte...-amid-faa.html