New Charges to Hit Airline Passengers : Taxes: Many airports are adding ‘PFCs’ of $1 to $3 per flight to help pay for facilities improvements.

Passenger facility charges--air travel taxes designed to raise revenue for airport improvement projects--are sprouting up at airports throughout the country.

PFCs range from $1 to $3 per person per flight, depending on the airport.

In all, 58 airports have asked the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to impose PFCs and 34 have received it, according to the Airports Assn. Council International, a Washington-based trade association that represents U.S. airports.

Currently, PFCs are being collected at airports in such major cities as Las Vegas, Denver, Portland, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Memphis and Tulsa. This month, airports in Oakland, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Cleveland and St. Louis started collecting them. And the three major airports serving New York City--John F. Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark, N.J.--are scheduled to begin imposing PFCs Oct. 1. Most of the 34 approved airports will have charges in place by the end of 1992.

According to Clifton Moore, executive director of Los Angeles International Airport, both LAX and Ontario will make formal application for PFCs within the next 30 days. If approved, the earliest that PFC charges could be levied against the traveler is Feb. 1, 1993.

Passengers can only be charged a maximum of two PFCs--i.e., $6--per one-way flight, no matter how many stops are on the itinerary. No more than four PFCs, or $12, could be assessed on a round-trip flight.

Besides making an extra dent in consumer travel budgets, the PFCs also mean a new addition to the small print at the bottom of airline ads. The Department of Transportation has issued new guidelines regarding how these charges should be cited in advertising by the airlines.

Under current DOT rules, fees and taxes are supposed to be included in the advertising of any air fare, or stated separately in such a way that consumers can easily figure out the total price.

The DOT has suggested that airlines disclose the PFCs by listing them for each airport on the advertised route, or by including the following phrase in each ad: “Does not include Passenger Facility Charge of up to $12.” According to the DOT, ads in markets in which the local airport imposes a PFC should state that the advertised fare does not include the specific charge levied at that facility, nor does it include possible PFCs charged at other airports.

The airlines are under no legal obligation to follow these guidelines, however.

In a recent Continental Airlines ad in The Times, the PFC was mentioned in smaller print at the bottom of the page: “Charges will vary from $1 to $3 per airport depending on routing. A maximum of $12 round trip can be charged.” Southwest Airlines, also in a recent ad in The Times, stated its PFC message in even smaller print at the bottom: “Does not include $3 Passenger Facility Charge assessed by Las Vegas and Tulsa on departing and connecting passengers.”

Since not all travelers are conditioned to read the small print at the bottom of ads, many could be surprised by the extra charges.

“We follow the DOT guidelines to make sure readers are aware of relevant PFCs, but this information is in the small print,” said Agnes Huff, a spokeswoman for USAir. “If it’s an airport that doesn’t have a PFC, like LAX, the ad copy would state that the fare doesn’t include PFCs that could go up to $12, depending on the itinerary. If the ad is in a market like Savannah, Ga., which has a PFC, the copy would state that the price doesn’t include the Savannah PFC of $3 and additional PFCs of up to $9, depending on the itinerary.”

Consumers pay PFCs at the time they purchase tickets. Travelers are entitled to a refund or adjustment if they make a change in their itinerary after payment. The PFCs aren’t subject to the 10% domestic airline tax.

Within the next few years, it is expected that as many as 200 U.S. airports--out of the approximately 700 served by scheduled airlines nationwide--will be authorized by the FAA to levy PFCs.

Travelers also can have PFCs tacked on their fares when flying from overseas on U.S. or foreign carriers if there is a U.S. domestic flight segment on their itinerary. Nonstop flights from overseas would not include a PFC.

The whole issue of airline disclosure in advertisements continues to be a troublesome one.

The bottom line for consumers in the current climate of lenient airline advertising: Read the small print at the bottom of any print ad, and always pay attention to asterisks and any words in bold-face printing or special borders. Conditions, restrictions and various disclaimers--relatively negative aspects that can affect your decision on whether or not to book a flight--are invariably going to be indicated only in these ways.