FAA Charter Industry Report Demonstrates Folly of User Fees on General Aviation

The following is a statement by National Air Transportation Association President and CEO Thomas L. Hendricks following the FAA’s release of a study of scheduled and non-scheduled air operators.  The study was mandated by Congress as part of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 (PL 112-95, Section 409):  

"In requesting this report, Congress recognized the importance of the air charter industry to the aviation sector and the fact that a full understanding of this segment’s importance to the national economy requires information culled from a number of disparate sources.  NATA thanks Congress for requesting the report and the FAA for its hard work in its development.   

The FAA’s report underscores the folly of proposals to assess user fees on this segment of general aviation.  It confirms that most charter operators are small businesses operating one or two aircraft.  The report also demonstrates the vital role of charter operators in the national economy, providing critical air service to nearly five times as many communities as the scheduled airlines. Most important, it notes the ever-increasing safety record of the air charter industry.

The decline in the number of charter certificates over the report’s time period also demonstrates providing air transportation in areas unserved by the airlines is a challenging business proposition.  Why would we want to make that harder by allowing an airline-dominated air traffic control corporation to become the de facto economic regulator of small businesses providing the only air service to thousands of communities across this nation?”

Report highlights:
  - 2,155 charter operators utilizing 10,655 aircraft
  - 70% of charter fleet is helicopters and piston or turbo-prop airplanes
  - Charter aircraft serve more than 3,000 airports (airlines 681)
  - Most charter establishments average 19 employees, have one or two aircraft and less than $2.5m in annual revenues