Question

Should the passenger facility charge (PFC) limits be increased within the FAA Re-authorization Bill?

Answer 1

Passenger facility charge (PFC) is an additional burden to travellers over and above the flight ticket cost. Already passengers are paying USD 4.50 per flight to maximum of USD 8.50 per ticket. The funds thus collected as PFC is utilized for improvement or enhancement of airport infrastructure.

The government should find other means to fund development charges for airports and not further increase PFC. With the ever increasing millions of travellers flying per year and paying PFC by default, the amount should suffice for normal upkeep and maintenance of airports. The point to note is that while PFC has remained stagnant over the years, the number of passengers has been steadily rising every year. The collection amount has therefore progressively increased over the years and kept pace with inflation. This leaves no justification to increase PFC.

The government may only increase PFC wherein originating flight is from a newly built airport to recover a part of cost. The increased PFC though should have cap of time period and subsquent to that it should be uniform as for all other originating airports.