Details about this story
- Source: USA Today
- Date: September 17, 2009
- URL: Read the story
- Bylines:
Thomas Frank ,
Brad Heath ,
Paul Overberg
- Topics:
Transportation
- Data Types:
Federal Data
- Description/Excerpt: The Williamsburg airport is the result of an obscure federal program that raises billions of dollars a year through taxes on every airplane ticket sold in the United States. The taxes can add up to 15% to the cost of a flight - or about $29 to a $200 round-trip ticket.
Federal lawmakers have used some of the money to build and maintain the world's most expansive and expensive network of airports - 2,834 of them nationwide - with no scheduled passenger flights. Known as general-aviation airports, they operate separately from the 139 well-known commercial airports that handle almost all passenger flights.
In the first full accounting of the 28-year-old Airport Improvement Program, USA TODAY found that Congress has directed $15 billion to general-aviation airports, which typically are tucked on country roads and industrial byways.
- Database or Graphic: Go to site (htm)
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