U.S. Rules Against Boston Airport Fee Plan Favoring Big Planes

A landing fee structure at Boston’s Logan International Airport, designed to reduce air traffic by discouraging smaller planes from using the congested field, is unreasonable, discriminatory and violates federal law, the Transportation Department said Thursday.

Deputy Transportation Secretary Mimi Weyforth Dawson signed an order that gives the Massachusetts Port Authority seven days to rescind its fee structure or lose eligibility for $10.2 million in federal aviation improvement grants for the current fiscal year.

MassPort officials immediately attacked the ruling and said they would challenge it in court.

“It sounds like the Department of Transportation has really just given in to political pressure from powerful special interest groups and turned its back on millions of air travelers in New England and throughout the nation,” said Thomas Champion, assistant to the executive director of MassPort.

But opponents of the plan hailed the ruling as a victory for commuter air passengers, private plane pilots and small-town America.

“This is a tremendous victory for greater public access to our major airports,” said Rep. Silvio O. Conte (R-Mass.), who wrote the law that authorized the cutoff of funds if the department agreed that the landing fee structure was unfair.

Operators of other major airports, including those in Los Angeles, Denver and Minneapolis, were awaiting the decision to see if the fee structure could be used as a model in their efforts to reduce air traffic, said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), a leading opponent of the landing fee plan.

Small commuter airlines and private plane owners fought the proposal, saying it would lock them out of Logan and deprive small communities of air service.

Under Logan’s revised fee structure, large jets are paying less than before, but small aircraft landing fees were increased from $25 to an average of about $100.

Logan officials defended the fee structure, which went into effect in July after a federal district judge in Boston ruled that the fees were not discriminatory.

Champion said the plan had succeeded in reducing congestion at Logan. He said Logan Airport’s on-time percentage, which was below the national average at 69.5% in September, 1987, was above the national average at 86.4% this September, an improvement he attributed to the fee plan.

The new fee structure was based on a combination of airplanes’ weight and other operating factors.

The original fee rate charged planes a minimum of $25 or $1.31 per 1,000 pounds, whichever was greater. Most small planes paid $25. Under the revised fee structure, which was increased again in October, all planes are assessed a $103 flat fee plus 55 cents per 1,000 pounds.

MassPort Executive Director David W. Davis said fees for a Boeing 747, which had ranged up to $800, have been cut roughly by half under the new fee structure, but the landing fee for a Cessna 402 seating 10 passengers jumped from $25 to about $105.