A System That Pays Its Own Way: Why American Aviation Deserves a Regulator That Treats It Like a Partner, Not an Adversary

A System That Pays Its Own Way: Why American Aviation Deserves a Regulator That Treats It Like a Partner, Not an Adversary

For more than a century, American aviation has stood as a symbol of national greatness — a showcase of American engineering, grit, and independence. But today, aviation represents something else entirely: a rare federal system that almost completely pays for itself. Unlike highways, rail, or mass transit, which rely heavily on general taxpayer funding, the U.S. aviation system is supported overwhelmingly by the very people who use it.

Through ticket taxes, segment fees, air-cargo levies, international arrival charges, fuel excise taxes, and TSA security fees, aviation users pour $24–26 billion into federal coffers every year. It is one of the most consistently self-funded national infrastructures in the United States.

Yet despite this, pilots, mechanics, instructors, flight-school operators, air carriers, and business-aviation owners increasingly feel that the Federal Aviation Administration — the agency they fund — treats them less like partners and more like adversaries.

Their frustrations reveal a deeper truth:

Aviation doesn’t need more bureaucracy. It needs real leadership. And with the right leadership, American aviation could be the first major federal transportation system to become fully self-funded — and even generate a surplus.

The Money Trail That Washington Rarely Talks About

The popular narrative is that aviation is a complex burden on Washington — something the government generously sustains through “federal investment.” That narrative is wrong.

The Airport and Airway Trust Fund, created in 1970, was designed so that aviation users, not taxpayers, would finance the cost of operating the world’s safest and most sophisticated air-transportation system. The trust fund’s revenue comes from:

• Domestic airline ticket taxes
• International arrival and departure taxes
• Air-cargo waybill taxes
• Fuel taxes for jet fuel and avgas
• Passenger segment fees

According to FAA and Treasury figures, the trust fund is expected to collect nearly $18 billion this year. Add the $4.5–5 billion collected from TSA passenger security fees — also paid by passengers — and you approach $23 billion before adding in fuel-specific levies and other aviation-linked revenues.

In total, aviation contributes well over $24 billion annually to the federal government.

Meanwhile, the federal cost of running the FAA, supporting airports, and providing TSA aviation security averages $33–35 billion per year — meaning aviation already covers nearly 80 percent of its own combined regulatory and infrastructure costs.

That number is climbing.

And with commonsense reforms, aviation could cover 100 percent — and then some.

Where the System Breaks Down: Not in the Air, but in the Office

Ask anyone inside aviation — from general aviation pilots to corporate flight departments to Part 135 charter operators — and they will tell you the same thing:

The FAA’s culture is broken.

Not its mission.

Not its workforce.

Its culture.

A culture that punishes innovation with delay.

A culture that treats operators as suspects, not customers.

A culture where accountability is a one-way street.

A culture where political appointees outrank professionals with lifetimes of real-world experience.

And most dangerously:

A culture where safety is increasingly conflated with bureaucracy.

Pilots and operators don’t fear rules. They fear inconsistencies. They fear contradictory interpretations. They fear an agency where simple approvals can take 18 months and where inspectors in neighboring offices give opposite answers to the same regulatory question.

And they fear something even worse: that questioning the process can lead to retaliation.

Starting a Charter Operation? You’d Better Pack a Sleeping Bag.

One of the most glaring examples of dysfunction lies in the Part 135 certification process. Charter operators — a booming part of the modern economy — report multi-year waits for approvals that once took months.

These delays raise costs, choke competition, and strangle small businesses before they can lift off. And they do so at a time when business aviation is stepping up to fill critical gaps left by airlines that have cut service to more than 300 smaller communities across the country.

When asked why these delays persist, regulators offer familiar explanations: staffing shortages, post-COVID backlogs, new guidance, increased complexity. But insiders know the truth: approvals aren’t slow because the system is overloaded — they’re slow because the system is unmanaged.

In an America First framework, aviation infrastructure should empower private enterprise, not block it. Instead, Washington’s aviation bureaucracy increasingly behaves like a monopoly gatekeeper.

And the costs pressurize the entire ecosystem: higher expenses, fewer operators, reduced competition, higher charter prices, declining access for rural communities, and fewer jobs.

General Aviation May Be the Canary in the Coal Mine

General aviation — the cornerstone of U.S. air mobility — is being crushed by rising costs, slow approvals, outdated regulations, and inspector inconsistency.

At a time when America needs more pilots, more mechanics, more instructors, and more homegrown aviation talent, the FAA is stuck in a defensive crouch, treating flight schools and grassroots operators as though they’re the enemy.

Safety is not at risk because pilots are reckless.

Safety is at risk because regulators are unresponsive.

Ask flight instructors. Ask examiners. Ask shop owners. Ask aircraft owners. Ask anyone trying to operate legally and responsibly.

They’ll all tell you the same thing:

The FAA no longer acts like a service provider. It acts like a police force without a community policing mindset — policing paperwork more aggressively than genuine safety threats.

The Case for America First Aviation Reform

America’s aviation system is still the best in the world — but it won’t remain that way if Washington continues prioritizing bureaucracy over performance, political symbolism over technical expertise, and administrative caution over innovation.

An America First model prioritizes:

• National strength through aviation leadership
• Domestic manufacturing competitiveness
• Efficient regulation that supports — not stifles — operational excellence
• Accountability from the regulator equal to that demanded from operators
• Aviation professionals, not political allies, in top regulatory roles

Most critically, it means putting industry experience above political credentials.

For decades, leadership at the FAA has often come from the world of politics, not the world of aviation. America would never appoint a non-doctor to run the CDC or a non-soldier to run Special Operations Command. Yet it routinely appoints people with minimal aviation background to lead the FAA.

That is not leadership.

That is patronage.

Aviation deserves better.

What Real Leadership Looks Like

A reformed FAA requires someone willing to:

• Speak truth to Congress, even when uncomfortable
• Slash internal bureaucracy that contributes nothing to safety
• Hold inspectors and managers accountable for slow or inconsistent decision-making
• Mandate clear, predictable guidance for operators
• Refocus enforcement away from paperwork errors and toward genuine risk factors
• Embrace innovation and modernization without ideological drag
• Advocate for aviation users as customers, not inconveniences

This leader must exist outside the political class, because only an experienced insider knows how to fix a system that most outsiders don’t understand.

Aviation needs a leader with backbone — someone unafraid to walk into a committee hearing and say:

“Our system isn’t unsafe — it’s outdated. And the reason it’s outdated is because Washington prioritizes bureaucracy over excellence.”

Aviation Could Fully Fund Itself — If Washington Stops Getting in the Way

With commonsense modernization and a shift toward a customer-service model, the aviation industry could easily supply:

• 100 percent of FAA operating costs
• 100 percent of federal airport-infrastructure support
• 100 percent of aviation security costs

And because aviation activity generates significant secondary tax revenue across the broader economy, additional operational efficiencies could transform aviation into a net revenue generator for the federal government.

That’s the America First promise:

A stronger aviation system, funded by the Americans who use it, empowered by the American businesses that drive it, and led by an FAA that works with aviation — not against it.

The Road Ahead

Reforming the FAA is not an attack on safety — it is a defense of it. Bureaucratic inertia is a safety hazard. Confusion is a safety hazard. Excessive delay is a safety hazard. And an adversarial regulator breeds silence, not compliance.

If American aviation is going to remain the world leader — and if the system is finally going to reach the self-funding potential its users have paid into for decades — the FAA must undergo the same transformation that other modern industries have embraced: accountability, transparency, customer service, and results.

Until then, aviation will continue carrying one of the heaviest regulatory burdens in America — while giving Washington one of its most reliable revenue streams.

Aviation has kept its end of the bargain.

It’s time Washington kept its own