Travelers and travel advocates have known since last December that Transportation Security Administration fees, which are added to ticket prices, would rise on July 1 with the start of a new fiscal year. What they didn't know was how the TSA would be re-defining what each leg of a flight really means, and they're incensed.
Congress in December agreed to raise the TSA fee from $2.50 for a non-stop flight to $5 for a trip with a layover and a flat rate of $5.60 for each leg of a trip. But now the TSA is looking to charge an extra $5.60 fee for each leg of the flight where there is a connection of more than four hours. That's a changing of the definition of a round trip but that's what will be published in the Federal Register today; it will take public comment for the next 60 days.
"Clearly there needs to be adequate funding for aviation security, but the last adjustment to the fee that funds TSA activities was very disappointing," said Roger Dow, president-CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. "In the budget agreement for the current fiscal year, the fee was raised knowing that a significant portion would be used to fund unrelated projects by Congress, instead of using all of the new revenue to pay for improved security activities."
"We're not happy about it at all," Charles Leocha, a consumer advocate who heads the group Travelers United, told USA Today. "For some reason, the government thinks that airline passengers are a bottomless piggy bank."
Steve Loucks, spokesperson for the nationwide travel agency Travel Leaders, told Fox Business News that fliers will blame the airlines when in fact it's not an airline issue.
"They should follow the spirit of the law that was passed by Congress (in December)," he said. "This hurts fliers who have to endure long layovers through no fault of their own."
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