Posted in Evan's Debates, tagged green, regulation, tax on December 10, 2007 | No Comments »
Returning to these posts and this article, I think I need to clarify and reframe my comments. First, Daniel is right that increasing the cost of carbon-based fuels will drive innovation in more fuel-efficient technologies. It did just that: in the late ’90s, Boeing pitched a fuel-wasting concept, the Sonic Cruiser. Airlines were standoffish at [...]
Posted in Evan's Debates, tagged competition, green, network airlines, tax, travel, usa on December 6, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Update on this post is here.
Daniel Hall at Common Tragedies has responded to my request for economic analysis. I was really wondering about the effects of different types of regulation–say, a mandate for minimum fuel-efficiency standards versus an overall greenhouse gas cap or tax. He writes, “I’m skeptical there’s much room in the aircraft market [...]
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, airports, competition, delays, faa, network airlines, regulation, tax, travel, usa on October 23, 2007 | No Comments »
Well, it’s been an exciting few days in the aviation policy world. I’ve been swamped with work at my day job, but I’ve been looking forward to this post for some time. Last Thursday, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters came much closer to endorsing a congestion-pricing plan for crowded airports than ever before. The next day, [...]
Posted in Evan's News and Quick Takes, tagged air traffic control, delays, faa, regulation, tax, travel, usa on October 18, 2007 | No Comments »
A federal task force of aviation stakeholders is meeting to discuss ways to reduce delays in the New York area, per Transportation Secretary Mary Peters’s orders.
The talks, led by the Federal Aviation Administration, have been closed to the public, but participants report that one of the primary topics will be “congestion pricing,” a scheme [...]
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged airports, competition, europe, green, tax, travel on October 8, 2007 | No Comments »
The Dutch government has decided to impose an additional tax on all passengers departing or arriving in the Netherlands (primarily affecting Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and the airline that hubs there, KLM). Like Britain’s Air Passenger Duty (APD), the Dutch tax differentiates between European flights (€11.45 per segment) and longer-haul flights (€45). The levy is part [...]
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, airports, competition, consumer advocacy, faa, labor, network airlines, regulation, safety, tax, travel, usa on September 26, 2007 | 1 Comment »
The House Transportation Committee’s Subcommittee on Aviation held a major hearing on airline delays and consumer issues, and your humble blogger was there to pass on the highlights. The hearing came at the heels of “the worst summer for airline delays” since the Bureau of Transportation Statistics began keeping records thirteen years ago. Only 72.2 [...]
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged air traffic control, airports, consumer advocacy, faa, labor, regulation, safety, tax, travel, usa on September 20, 2007 | 3 Comments »
The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2007 (HR 2881) was adopted by the House of Representatives today in a 267-151 vote. The Senate bill will be voted on soon–and will contain significant differences than the House bill, requiring a battle royal in conference.
I have paid very little attention to news coverage of FAA funding politics, mostly [...]
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged aerospace, airports, competition, europe, green, regulation, tax, travel, world on August 20, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Climate change protesters are now putting their retro-radical tactics to use at airports. Protesters clashed with police over the weekend near London’s Heathrow airport, where a planned (and needed) third runway has raised the ire of environmental activists. Aviation, they say, contributes 2 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and therefore needs to be limited, [...]
Posted in Evan's Commentary, tagged airports, competition, europe, green, regulation, tax on July 30, 2007 | 4 Comments »
The City–shorthand for Britain’s financial sector–is trying to flex its muscles with the British government over Heathrow Airport. Considered (inexplicably, to me) one of the world’s most desirable airports to fly in and out of due to its relative proximity to central London, Heathrow is losing its competitive edge to airports like Amsterdam’s, Frankfurt’s, and [...]
