Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

A politician is threatening to cut off any federal funding for airport modifications necessary to accomodate the A380. IND is among the 5th through 10th airport to be ready for the A380. LAX, SFO, MIA, and JFK are expected to be ready first, followed by the group of IND, ORD, MEM, SDF, ANC, and DFW, I believe. Anyway, in this article...

http://www.airportbusiness.com....jsp?siteSection=1&id=6956

John Mica, chair of the House Aviation subcomittee, says that federal money shouldn't be used for infrastructure improvements related to the A380 unless a US airline is going to use them. This is supposedly because it's "unfair" that European governments subsidized the launch of the A380.

What an idiot. Is this all the intelligence that's required to serve in Congress these days? First of all, FedEx is the f$#%ing LAUNCH PARTNER for the A380 cargo version. Aren't they a US airline? And UPS has ordered the aircraft as well. Unless Memphis and Atlanta are still part of the Confederate States of America, then these two airlines are US-based. Second, how short-sighted can he be? Having A380s land at US gateway airports can be a way to bring more people to the US to spend more money in our economy. With the extra cargo that even the pax versions can carry, it could make air cargo more efficient and lower the cost to move US-made goods around the world. After all, the types of manufactured goods we excel at producing are those high-value items for which air cargo is more likely to be the transportation mode of choice. And rather than throw a tantrum about unfair subsidies, why not make the passenger airlines pay for the improvements? Tax the crap out of any passenger landing at a US airport on an A380. When United or Continental or whoever start using the A380 themselves, recind the tax.

Damn, politicans really piss me off when they start meddling in the market. If it's OK to use federal money to build the totally useless MidAmerica Airport or to subsidize airline service out of places like DEC, then why isn't it OK to help pay for the infrastructure for this aircraft?

OK, I'll jump down off my soapbox now...

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

"unless a US airline is going to use them"

Well in this case we'd be fine because FX would be using it. But it is pretty narrow minded of him.

Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

But how utterly uninformed is this clown? Two US airlines are going to use the A380. Although they aren't pax airlines, UPS and FedEx are damn big airlines as measured by fleet size. You'd think at the very least his staff would have given him this information before he popped off his shortsighted comments.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Its unlikely his staff knows any better. If they wanted to do research all they'd have to do is visit an aviation website.

Member

Joined: 15 May 2006
Posts: 728
Location: West Lafayette, IN

Thats pretty much hows it works with all of the media. They make their normal viewers impressed with their "knowledge," and at the same time, their the laughing stock of the aviation world.