Boswell Calls on Major Airlines to Refund Passenger Overcharges

Leonard Boswell

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Leonard Boswell is urging major airlines to stop charging customers for aviation taxes that they do not pay while the FAA is shut down and to return the overcharges. There are recent reports that airlines are increasing base fare prices to include the cost of aviation taxes, instead of passing the same savings they are receiving to their consumers.

“I have joined with my colleagues in the House to ask member airlines of the Air Transport Association (ATA) to stop taking advantage of the FAA shutdown and to give consumers a break by not charging them for the aviation taxes that they are no longer paying themselves,” said Boswell, a senior Member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “This is profiteering off of a shutdown that is already costing taxpayers billions in lost revenue and furloughing thousands of hard-working Americans. This behavior by the major airlines is nearly as disgraceful as the Speaker adjourning the House early instead of working with the Senate and President to put an end to the FAA shutdown.”

The Congressman sent a letter with 90 of his colleagues to Richard Anderson, ATA Chair and CEO of Delta Air Lines, asking him to work with the major airlines to make sure they charge the same base fare price they did before the shutdown and to refund travel excise taxes to consumers who wrongfully paid for them when companies were not required.

The full text of the letter is attached.