Next time you buy an airline ticket, you might notice it’s just a tad bit more expensive. That’s because the United States has a deficit to pay down, so it’s ordered the Transportation Security Administration to increase the security fee it charges each traveler.
Right now the Sept. 11 security fee the TSA charges is $2.50 per leg of a trip, with a $5 cap. But the impending hike will raise that to a flat $5.60 fee per one-way trip, without any cap at all, reports the Los Angeles Times.
So </afor example — if you fly round-trip to your destination and have no layovers, you’ll be charged $11.20 round-trip. But if you’ve got a long layover on the way there and on the way back, if each is over four hours you’ll be charged a total of $22.40. That’s $5.60 for each separate leg.
And of course, travelers likely aren’t looking forward to the hike, which goes into effect today — and neither are airline officials.
“Our government must stop using airlines and their passengers as its own personal ATM whenever it needs more money,” said a a spokesman for Airlines for America, a trade group for the nation’s carriers.
The TSA says it’s not making money of the increase, however, because Congress is sending the new fee funds to go toward reducing the government by way of the U.S. Treasury. And it says another fee that Congress eliminated is dinging its coffers by about $420 million in lost annual revenue.
Fliers to pay higher TSA fee to help pay down deficit [Los Angeles Times]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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