Aviation Fees: Review of Air Carriers' Year 2000 Passenger and Property Screening Costs
Highlights
The Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA) authorized the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to impose an Aviation Security Infrastructure Fee (ASIF) on air carriers to help pay for the costs of aviation security services. To impose the ASIF, TSA issued an Interim Final Rule (IFR) and required air carriers to report their passenger and property screening costs incurred in 2000 on an attachment to the IFR referred to as Appendix A. The 2000 screening costs reported by air carriers were going to be used to establish the ASIF. Based on industry estimates of $1 billion, TSA had estimated that the costs incurred by air carriers in 2000 were $750 million, but the amounts reported by air carriers totaled $319 million, significantly less than expected. To provide the Congress with an independent assessment, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2005 required GAO to review the amount of passenger and property screening costs incurred by air carriers in 2000.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Transportation Security Administration | The Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Assistant Secretary, Transportation Security Administration, to consider the analysis and estimates in this study in determining the limitation on the aggregate air carrier fee consistent with ATSA (49 U.S.C. 44940(a)(2)(B)(i)). |
Closed – Implemented
The Aviation and Transportation Security Act authorized the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to impose an Aviation Security Infrastructure Fee on air carriers to help pay for the costs of aviation security services. To impose the fee, TSA issued an Interim Final Rule requiring air carriers to report their passenger and property screening costs incurred in 2000 to be used to establish the fee. TSA estimated the costs incurred by air carriers in 2000 were $750 million. The amounts reported by air carriers totaled $319 million; significantly less than TSA's estimate. To provide the Congress with an independent assessment, GAO was mandated to review the passenger and property screening costs incurred by air carriers in 2000. Based on our work, we estimated that the passenger and property screening costs incurred by air carriers in 2000 were between $425 million and $471 million, with a midpoint estimate of $448 million. The difference between our midpoint estimate and what the air carriers reported and paid to TSA was $129 million. Based on our estimate, TSA increased monthly fee assessments to 34 air carriers, resulting in a monthly increase in TSA collections of over $8.3 million. Consequently, GAO claimed an accumulated financial benefit of $628,869,080 (on a net present value basis) based on the additional TSA fee collections in 2007 and 2008, and TSA's projected fee collections for the next three years. Specifically, this financial accomplishment encompasses the net present value of TSA records related to the following five increases in fee collection from 34 air carriers as a result of our work: May 2007 TSA fee collections (including retroactive fee collections associated with air carrier fee increases)of $266,377,327; fiscal year 2008 increased TSA fee collections of $97,966,784; fiscal year 2009 increased TSA fee collections of $92,194,528; fiscal year 2010 increased TSA fee collections of $88,114,812; and fiscal year 2011 increased TSA fee collections of $84,215,629.
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