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[quote user="BaltACD"] For the past several years the airlines have all be clamoring that they are financially at deaths door with the current fare/cost structure...a structure where the airlines are not paying fully allocated costs for either the terminal facilities (airports) or traffic control (air traffic control systems).  Were those costs to be fully passed on to the airlines, very few people could afford to fly at the fares that would have to be charged.  As it stands now, airlines are receiving a subsidy from all forms of government to sustain their operations....subsidies that are not acknowledged for what they are.[/quote] If you review the financial statements for the airlines, as well as the financial data from the FAA and OMB, you will see that the airlines receive a small federal subsidy compared to Amtrak.  Moreover, if you study the financial data associated with the construction, maintenance, and operation of the roughly 525 airports served by commercial airlines, you will see that they receive a very small, if any, subsidy from the local authorities that own and operate them.  The major exception is a few small airports, mostly in the west, that serve remote communities. In 2008 the commercial airlines received an average federal subsidy of $3.35 per passenger or .42 cents per passenger mile compared to an average federal subsidy of $48.50 per passenger or 22.61 cents per passenger mile for Amtrak.  Most of the nation's airports were funded with municipal bonds, which are not subject to federal tax, as well as some state taxes, which resulted in slightly lower construction costs, which are passed on to the airlines in the form of lower landing fees.  Most of the nation's railroads received a variety of federal, state, and local subsidies that are probably have a net present value equal to or in fact surpass the local subsidies received by the nation's airports.
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