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LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic

March 16, 2000, THURSDAY, Late Sports Final Edition

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 28

LENGTH: 380 words

HEADLINE: Higher plane ticket tax looms;
House OKs bill that adds O'Hare slots

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:
The House on Wednesday passed a $ 40 billion aviation bill that raises the passenger ticket tax and lifts limits on flights at O'Hare and three other major airports.

Approved by the Senate last week, the three-year authorization for the Federal Aviation Administration passed the House 319-101. It now goes to President Clinton, who supports it. The bill would increase aviation spending in fiscal 2001 to $ 12.7 billion, up $ 2.7 billion from this year.

By 2002, O'Hare would gain seven more slots -- times allotted to airlines to fly in and out of major airports. Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said that by increasing slots at O'Hare, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and New York's Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, competition among airlines will increase and air carriers will improve service at smaller airports as a result.

The top Democrat on the Transportation Committee, Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, said that "under no circumstance will the FAA allow more departures or arrivals than controllers can safely manage."

The bill also would increase from $ 3 to $ 4.50 the maximum facility tax that airports can collect on each passenger. That could bring in an extra $ 700 million a year for local improvements if all airports imposed the increase.

The bill seeks to aid small-market airports by doubling minimum funding to $ 1 million a year and helping airlines buy regional jets if they agree to use them to serve small airports.

It requires new criminal background checks and training for airport security personnel and amends a 1920 law that bars families of those lost in air disasters at sea -- such as the 1996 TWA 800 crash that killed 230 people -- from collecting damages except "economic damages."

The House and Senate both passed FAA bills last year but were unable to reach a compromise over Shuster's demand that the Aviation Trust Fund, which takes in about $ 10 billion a year in user fees, be separated from the general federal budget and its revenues be used exclusively for airport projects.

The Senate wouldn't go along but finally agreed to a compromise where spending on airports every year would at least equal revenues and interest from the fund.

GRAPHIC: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES WIRES

LOAD-DATE: March 16, 2000