Your recent article on FAA funding ("Big rewards for small airports,"April 16) missed several key points on who really benefits from small airports. Small airports are primarily served by the general aviation industry, the planes used by farmers, charitable organizations, businesses, individuals and flight schools which are often the only access points to small towns and communities. These communities are largely ignored by the commercial airlines, which limit their service mostly to urban areas.
Now the airlines are seeking to shirk their tax responsibilities by shifting billions of their tax obligations onto the small aircraft industry by instituting user-fee taxes and increasing fuel taxes by 300 percent, while cutting crucial funds needed to support community airports. Taxing smaller aircraft and the general aviation industry into the ground would adversely impact the overall financial well-being of families living in small towns across America and would also result in the inevitable curtailing of such critical medical-volunteer services..
Henry Ogrodzinski
Alliance for Aviation Across America
Silver Spring, Maryland