The number of US air travelers is expected to soon return to pre-2001 levels and the long term outlook is for 1 billion passengers annually by 2015, says the Federal Aviation Administration in its latest annual forecast.
But those numbers are also potential problems with government-run systems getting outmoded and resources to boost capacity shrinking fast, the government said.
The FAA says the airline business is bouncing back but faces major air traffic modernization problems as well as labor difficulties.
“Our workload goes up, our revenue goes down,” said Marion Blakey, administrator of the FAA.
A major regulator concern is that the federal trust fund for FAA programs funded by passenger fees tied to yields from ticket prices is dropping, says Reuters news service. Consumers have benefited from lower fares, but the trust fund balance has fallen from $7.3 billion in 2001 to $2 billion this year.
Some industry experts are calling for new regulations to stabilize prices, but Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta told an FAA conference that any price regulation was not going to be supported by President George W. Bush.
Report by David Wilkening
