Airlines will return to Congress for more relief WASHINGTON (AP) =97 Protecting air travelers from terrorists is the=20 government's job and airlines should not have to collect up to $10 per=20 passenger for security, an airline executive said Thursday. But the=20 chairman of the House aviation subcommittee said he would try to make sure= =20 the airlines do collect the fee. Congress in April temporarily lifted a=20 passenger fee imposed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to pay for=20 security screeners, bomb-detection machines and other measures. The holiday= =20 from the fee was part of a $2.9 billion relief package to ease the impact=20 of war and terrorism on the airline industry, which lost billions of=20 dollars in the past two years. Leo Mullin, chief executive of Delta Air=20 Lines, said protecting air travelers from terrorists is not the airlines'=20 responsibility. "Security should be funded by the federal government," he=20 told the Aero Club of Washington, an aviation industry group. Mullin said airlines will ask the government to abolish the passenger fee=20 outright. Under current law, airlines will have to resume collecting the=20 fee August 1. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House aviation=20 subcommittee, said he has no sympathy for the airlines, especially because= =20 they raised their fares after the fee was lifted. "We have multibillion=20 dollar costs of aviation security that should be borne by the passenger who= =20 uses air service and not by the general public or the U.S. Treasury," Mica= =20 said. It will be the third time airlines asked for government help since=20 the hijackings. Congress gave the industry $5 billion in cash when many=20 people stopped flying after the attacks. In April, lawmakers lifted the=20 passenger fee as part of a $2.9 billion relief plan and repaid all the=20 airlines for the fees already collected. That money came with strings attached for the biggest airlines. Some=20 members of Congress were angered by airline executives, including Mullin,=20 who took home big salaries and bonuses while cutting jobs and demanding pay= =20 concessions from workers. Lawmakers required the largest airlines to limit= =20 their top two executive salaries in order to get the government aid. Mullin= =20 said he didn't know whether his credibility as an industry spokesman was=20 hurt by criticism of his compensation of nearly $13 million last year.=20 "That is for someone else to define," he said. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************