West coast,
In response,
1. How do european carriers get all their pilots? If GA is so important to train your airline pilots, how does Lufthansa, BA etc get pilots when GA is almost non existant here. The fact about US pilots not wanting to start at the bottom again...well that is up to them to decide, the fact is that there are pilots available and will be for quite some time. Don't get me wrong, I am just playing devils advocate here, I do see the downside of privatisation but the arguements used against it on this site are weak.
2. Look at EASYJET, record profits, bargain fares and they are subject to all the user fees in Europe. The salaries are not bargain basement as some US regional carriers... so how do they do it?? There is also Ryanair that does quite well with the same concept. We have to stop using this excuse, it's time for the big boys to be accountable and to run a business properly. The days of huge airline infrastructure are dying, just look at USAIR, UAL, the proof is there folks. How does Southwest and Jetblue make money in the US?? Are they giving bargain fares just to maintain cashflow, last time I checked they are turning a profit. User fees work out to merely dollars per ticket sold.
3. I will reseach and get an exact number, I am sure there are stats in Canada that show the drop if any in GA after the ANS became private with user fees.
I compare this with ATC, in Canada, you now have to pay to train as an air traffic controller. The basic training is no longer free. If it was this way when I went through the system I probably would not have pursued it since it would have been to costly to me. The same goes for aviation, yes you might deter people from flying by charging user fees but you will still have those who want to become pilots and will pay. Just look at some of the flight schools in Florida, people pay upwards of 30 K to get an IFR rating so they can go work for COMAIR and make peanuts.
The statement made on this site about safety where a pilot might not shoot an ILS approach in bad weather because of user fees where he would have before because it's too expensive??? Now come on, any pilot that does this should not be a pilot, period. Putting himself and his aircraft and crew in danger is irresponsible and anyone with a conscience would not do this. It boils down to, if you wanna play, you gotta pay. Pure and simple.