You said user pays came in and scared everyone away so revenue dropped and hence staff cuts. Before user pays there WAS no revenue, so there should have been MORE staff cuts. Not sure how you get a revenue drop from there being no user pays
There used to be a fuel levy which funded aviation now that has been removed and everything has to paid for individually multiplying the cost.
Ironically there is a fuel levy on petrol for cars which noone seems to protest.