USA Today cover article

[n2582d]

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/ ... ostPopular

Comments?

[jrenwick]

AOPA's response to the story is here: http://www.aopa.org/advocacy/articles/2 ... story.html. EAA's is here: http://www.eaa.org/news/2009/2009-09-17_funding.asp. It's very biased and inflammatory, right from the top.

[Blue4]

Aerospace is one of the few industries left in the United States where we're still a world leader. Apparently, taking down the bizjet world is not enough for our yellow journalists -- they want to destroy the entire industry, and bring us down to the level of other nations. Maybe Airbus will start making (subsidized) light piston singles.

[jrenwick]

NPR interviewed a USA Today reporter about this story on All Things Considered on Thursday. The audio and a transcript are here: http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/r ... =9-17-2009. You have to scroll about halfway down the page to find it. On Friday they read a couple of letters from pilots in response to this.

NPR at least asked if pilots are also paying fees that subsidize small airports, and the answer was yes, through fuel taxes, but their contribution is much smaller than that of airline passengers. It was also stated that it's the airlines who are against public subsidies of non-carrier airports.

[GAHorn]

....NPR at least asked if pilots are also paying fees that subsidize small airports, and the answer was yes, through fuel taxes, but their contribution is much smaller than that of airline passengers. It was also stated that it's the airlines who are against public subsidies of non-carrier airports.

That's still not a good rebuttal, however, because GA pays a HIGHER RATE than the tax on an airline ticket. The only reason the contribution is smaller is because more people fly airlines than GA.

Also, guess WHY the airlines opposes public subsidies of non-carrier airports....? (Ans: They want no one but themselves to provide public transport by air...and they want it ONLY at their HUB-airports.)

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

This whole thing disgusts me so much I don't care to read it. Not knowing of the USA Today story I happen to catch the tail end of the local NBC story where they had the Mayor of Allentown standing at Queen City Airport telling viewers the 100s of acres of airport property if sold and developed would benefit everyone rather that just the 40 pilots who have planes based there.

Idiots.

[Brad Brady]

Idiots.

Bruce,
You know that you're preaching to the choir on this one.....Small airports support, Angle flights, Mercy Flights.....many other free flights for sick individuals....How many organs could be flown from major airports, without time being wasted getting them to the airport, when a small municipal airport is just miles away?....Where are the airlines going to find their drivers? The list goes on and on.....I think most of these Idiots, are more ignorant, than stupid. (although I have been wrong before). People need to know just how important their local airport is. That takes education. Most of us have access to a local paper or Blog....We need to exercise that option much more......I occasionally send something to our local paper, and they gladly run a little something.....I liked the EAA's rebuttal better than the AOPA's. But still thought it lacking. With out writing my own, I'm still looking for a better article to send the local paper.....Brad

[170C]

"..Small airports support, Angle flights, Mercy Flights.....many other free flights for sick individuals....How many organs could be flown from major airports, without time being wasted getting them to the airport.."

Point well taken Brad! Can you imagine the logistics of getting people on Angle flight, Mercy flights, sick individuals and organs through all the TSA crap at the major airports

[Bill Hart]

I am sure that Bruce can speak to this but at my home airport just 20 or so miles from Atlanta's Hartsfield also houses our sheriffs department and the local life flight rescue helicopter outfit. Lets see them try that out of Atlanta.

[GAHorn]

The Air Lines and Developers are who is behind this. They will contribute big bucks to politicians who sing their song. Follow the money!

Join AOPA and EAA. Encourage Federal development dollars to be spent at your airport if you want to lock it up for another 20 years. (Think "stimulus package".)

[flyguy]

The Air Lines and Developers are who is behind this. They will contribute big bucks to politicians who sing their song. Follow the money!

George I will agree with part of your statement, but this writer has a history of factual ignorance concerning general aviation. I don't think his motives are political as much as they seem to deliberately focus on the idea that aircraft belonging to the major airlines are the only ones in the air worth consideration.

In almost all of Thomas Frank's writings on aviation issues, he seems to be a "shill" for the "majors". I don't remember him ever interviewing any "general aviation" sources when his articles sometimes plead for that info. In one of the recent "Aviation E-Brief" ( http://www.aopa.org/ebrief/ ) from AOPA there were links to several articles with much more support shown for small airport funding and showing the true picture of the benefits to communities brought by general aviation. Thomas failed miserably in getting the facts from all angles in his article

This says it so much better - - ( http://www.aopa.org/advocacy/articles/2 ... _id=ebrief )


Every user of our fantastic system of general aviation airports should fire-off a hard hitting letter to USA Today and advise them of the publication of unsupported facts by their feature writer Frank Thomas.

[jrenwick]

Every user of our fantastic system of general aviation airports should fire-off a hard hitting letter to USA Today and advise them of the publication of unsupported facts by their feature writer Frank Thomas.

I bet if we did that, the USA Today editors would say "Wow! A lotta people read this Thomas guy. We gotta give him more ink!!!!"

Talk Radio has built an empire on that concept.

[GAHorn]

I think anyone who promotes airlines over general aviation .... should have to ride the bus and do without personal cars...and without taxi and ambulance service.

Anyone who speaks out to deny small airports appropriate funding... should not be allowed to use any off-ramps of any highway/freeway except those that exit in heavily-congested downtown areas of large cities.