THREE REACTIONS : Views Mixed on Effect on Airline Traffic

The proposed increase in the tax on an airline ticket to 10% from 8%--part of the federal deficit-cutting compromise--is expected to have only a moderate effect on travel.

“I don’t think there will be less people traveling,” said Thomas Nulty, president of Santa Ana-based Associated Travel Management, which has 18 branch offices in California. “The 8% did not deter people. The additional 2% won’t cause anybody to change plans either.”

But others in the travel business in California are more pessimistic about the future. Adding that the tax is “regressive,” Ralph E. Conner Jr., president of El Monte Travel Center and an officer of the American Society of Travel Agents, said: “With all the taxes they are hitting us with, people will be discouraged from flying.”

Airlines and travel agents complain that the additional 2 percentage points of ticket tax is not the only flying-related levy in the new budget proposal. There is also a 2-cent-a-gallon fuel tax, much of which is likely to be passed on to the consumer. For international travelers the bill also contains a new $1 levy for agricultural inspections and another $1 for the government agency that promotes tourism in the United States.

The airlines that compete in the corridor between the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas say it is too early to determine how or if the added tax will hurt their business. But since it comes atop skyrocketing fuel prices and the softening of the economy, they will do some harm.

But there is one bright spot for Los Angelenos. Because arriving foreign passengers seldom had the $1 bill needed to rent a baggage cart at Los Angeles International Airport, that fee will be eliminated Nov. 10 for all passengers.