El GBTA complació al Congreso al escuchar el mensaje de que el aumento de PFC dañaría la economía de los EE. UU.

PFC Increase Left Out of Omnibus Spending Bill

Alexandria, VA (March 21, 2018) – Tonight, Congress released the details of the Fiscal Year 2018 Omnibus spending bill, which would fund the government through September. The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) was pleased to see that attempts to increase air passengers’ flight costs were rebuffed. Congressional leaders rejected a proposal from Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) to increase the cap on passenger facility charges (PFC) from $4.50 to $8.50.

Currently, PFCs are capped at $4.50 per flight segment with a maximum of two PFCs charged on a one-way trip or four PFCs on a round trip, for a maximum of $18.00 total. If the increase had gone through that maximum would have jumped to $26, meaning an estimated $2.6 billion would have been levied on all travelers purchasing airlines tickets.

The impact of the rejected PFC hike would have been drastic:

A reduction of $2.74 billion of airline tickets sold in the United States

A decrease of $3.5 billion in U.S. GDP

Job loss by nearly 500,000 jobs

“Congress has again recognized that such a large increase of the PFC is simply unwarranted,” said Michael W. McCormick, GBTA executive director and COO. “Travel in general, and specifically business travel, is greatly impacted by increased taxes and fees. Rejecting this increase, is a positive step towards continued business travel growth, which drives lasting economic growth.”

GBTA research has found that for every 1 percent change in business travel spending, the U.S. economy gains or loses 74,000 jobs, $5.5 billion in GDP, $3.3 billion in wages and $1.3 billion in taxes. Taxes and fees associated with travel typically lead to a negative effect.

Acerca de la Asociación Global de Viajes de Negocios
La Asociación Global de Viajes de Negocios (GBTA) es la principal organización comercial de viajes de negocios y reuniones del mundo con sede en el área de Washington, DC y operaciones en seis continentes. Los más de 9000 miembros de GBTA administran anualmente más de $345 mil millones de viajes de negocios globales y gastos de reuniones. GBTA ofrece educación, eventos, investigación, defensa y medios de clase mundial a una red global en crecimiento de más de 28,000 profesionales de viajes y 125,000 contactos activos. Para saber cómo los viajes de negocios impulsan el crecimiento empresarial duradero, visite www.gbta.org.