The Passenger Facility Charge Program:
An Overview and an Examination of Increasing or Removing the Program’s Current Limits

Submitted by
Jim Halley
March 10, 2013

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the
Course Requirements for
MGMT 533 Federal Regulations, Ethics, and the Legal System

Table of Contents | Executive Summary | ii | An Overview and History of the Passenger Facility Charge Program | 1 | Passenger Facility Charge Limits and the Arguments For and Against Raising the Limits | 2 | The Statutory and Regulatory Aspects of the PFC Program | 5 | A Recommendation Regarding PFC Limits | 6 | Works Cited | 7 |

Executive Summary
As established by the Aviation Safety and Capacity Expansion Act of 1990, the …show more content…
In 1990, Congress passed the ASCEA, permitting the imposition of up to $3.00 in PFCs to enplaning passengers with a maximum of $6.00 of fees per each direction of a roundtrip flight (Wells & Young, 2004). The passing of the ASCEA came with implications for those airports imposing PFCs: airports that impose PFCs forfeit a portion of the apportionment funds allocated to them under the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) (Wells & Young, 2004). Apportionment funds were reduced by 50% of an individual airport’s projected PFC collections for that year, not to exceed 50% of the annual apportionment amount allocated to that airport for that same year (Wells & Young, 2004). This reduction in apportionment allocation permits the FAA to provide smaller airports with more capital funding (Price & Forrest, 2012).
In 2000, Congress passed the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR-21) which increased PFC limits to $4.50 per segment with an $18.00 limit on roundtrip flights (Price & Forrest, 2012). AIR-21 also increases the amount PFC-imposing large and medium hub airports’ apportionment funds would be reduced to a 75% reduction (Price & Forrest, 2012). $2.796 billion in PFC funds were collected in calendar year 2012 with the FAA estimating that there will