Looming partial FAA shutdown could lower airline ticket prices - for now

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood talks about the possible shutdown of the FAA during a news conference on Thursday.

/ AP Photo/Susan Walsh

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood sought to reassure airline passengers that they won't notice any difference at the airport as a result of the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration that will commence at midnight tonight because of a political fight on Capitol Hill over the agency's funding.

"They'll still be able to buy a ticket, they'll still be able to fly, air traffic controllers will be in the towers guiding planes in and out safely, the traveling public will not be compromised," LaHood said at a news conference Thursday.

Because the FAA's current funding is set to expire at the end of today and Congress hasn't approved new funding legislation, starting on Saturday, the FAA will have to stop collecting $200 million a week in airline ticket taxes, work on $2.5 billion worth of airport construction projects will be halted, and some 4,000 FAA employees will be furloughed until a new FAA funding bill is passed. Airports, however, will remain open and no flights will be cancelled as a result.

"The system will run," said LaHood. And indeed it will.

The funding fight has to do with a pair of partisan political issues that the vast majority of the flying public knows little about: Republicans want to make it harder for airline workers to unionize and they also want to eliminate $16 million in government subsidies for 13 small rural airports. Democrats do not.

"We have now reached a breaking point," LaHood said of the legislative stalemate. "This is no way to run the best aviation system in the world."

But for now, the only difference that the nearly two million airline passengers who fly in that system everyday are likely to notice is a temporary drop in the total price of their tickets: That tax that the FAA won't be able to collect starting on Saturday comes out to about $61 on a typical domestic ticket.

On the Web:

Department of Transportation statement and fact sheet
LaHood's blog post on the looming partial shutdown

[petejensen]

Let me see:
-- The Airlines absorbed the money in their profits and there was no decrease in ticket prices.
-- 120 construction workers will be laid off when local airport projects cease next month.

What's not to like? Unless you are the CEO of Delta....

[petejensen]

Let me see:
-- The Airlines absorbed the money in their profits and there was no decrease in ticket prices.
-- 120 construction workers will be laid off when local airport projects cease next month.

What's not to like? Unless you are the CEO of Delta....

[gardenista]

further more we are paying a third of our weekly pay to pay for health insurance while the government is riding the free for all train, having all their health care paid for. and the ultimate retirement plan. tell them they need to pay More towards their health insurance and there would be an outrage. We are here .We are the ones suffering and loosing everything. shame on the government for snubbing us.

[gardenista]

further more we are paying a third of our weekly pay to pay for health insurance while the government is riding the free for all train, having all their health care paid for. and the ultimate retirement plan. tell them they need to pay More towards their health insurance and there would be an outrage. We are here .We are the ones suffering and loosing everything. shame on the government for snubbing us.

[gardenista]

further more we are paying a third of our weekly pay to pay for health insurance while the government is riding the free for all train, having all their health care paid for. and the ultimate retirement plan. tell them they need to pay More towards their health insurance and there would be an outrage. We are here .We are the ones suffering and loosing everything. shame on the government for snubbing us.

[gardenista]

I am so sick and tired of this republican game sine obama took office it is on record that the republican party would vote no and veto everything that came through congress to get our nation back on track just because they do not like Obama. we the American people have suffered enough being pawns in the political game the last 3 years we are still broke out of work and homeless while you are lapping up all your rediculous saleries' and having all your crap paid for by the American people . the congress has just been out for their own well being and not one i-ota of concern for the American people Or The united States

[thomasmc1957]

It could also lower your chances of surviving your flight, you IDIOT.

[txlakeside]

republiCONS are costing more jobs all the while they are content on preserving the richest folks their tax breaks! Vote the republiCONS out! Raise the taxes on the rich! It is time they pay their fair share! It does not trickle down and that has been proven over and over again! Vote the republiCONS out! One look at the GOP anti-GOV morons here and you understand the importance of education!

[Imthaid2]

It's the TSA that needs to be shut down.

[m0u5y]

It's okay. We get it -- the country is falling apart. ******* happens.