Another absurdity. Whatever happened to the large surplus from the many other aviation taxes? The airline industry is right up there with the telephone industry in the amount of taxes being charged. If you don't believe be, go to Southwest's page (www.southwester.com) and make a reservations (you don't have to complete the transaction, though). When you get to the total fare page, look at how much of the fare is actually taxes. (For the telephone company, look at your last bill. In my case, the bill was about $20 - the actuall telephone company charges was only about $15!) The charge mentioned below is, according to another article, is charged once for your originating flight and for each connecting flight. Never mind that you probably don't go through security again when making a connection. David Ross http://damiross.go.cc http://home.earthlink.net/~damiross/airlines.html http://home.earthlink.net/~damiross/books.html > DOT To Begin Charging Security Tax To Cover Costs > > The U.S. federal government next month plans to begin charging a $2.50 fee > to all air travelers to cover the government's aviation security costs. The > new security fee was authorized in the Aviation and Transportation Security > Act, which was signed into law on Nov. 19. DOT on Monday issued an interim > final rule that imposes the fee, beginning Feb. 1. Under the rule, direct > air carriers, both domestic and foreign, will be responsible for collecting > the tax for passenger enplanements from U.S. airports. The airlines would > send the money to DOT's new Transportation Security Administration. The > agency plans to consider comments on this interim final rule received in the > rulemaking docket through March 1. "The funds raised through this September > 11 Security Fee will be used to implement new aviation security measures," > said Secretary Norman Mineta. According to the DOT budget office, about $900 > million would be raised from the new tax in fiscal year 2002. The money will > help pay for passenger and baggage screeners, security managers and law > enforcement staff at airports, as well as the purchase of explosives > detection systems. > > Copyright 2002 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.