The cost of flying from Hobby Airport will soon be more expensive thanks to your elected officials on Houston City Council:
Travelers flying in and out of Houston’s Hobby Airport will likely face a $3 fee on each ticket by year’s end after City Council approved the surcharge Wednesday.
The fee, which would help pay for capital improvements, would apply only at Hobby, not at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. It now awaits the approval of the Federal Aviation Administration, which is expected in about eight months.
“I think it makes sense to have users of the airport, airline companies and the passengers pay for airport improvements rather than shifting it onto the general public,” Mayor Bill White said.
[snip]
Three council members — Addie Wiseman, Anne Clutterbuck and Ada Edwards — voted against the measure, saying passengers should not have to pay for the budgeting mistakes of airport officials.
“The fact that there is an inability to control spending or manage spending within the Houston Airport System gives me great concern,” Wiseman said.
Councilwoman Pam Holm requested an audit of how the projects are managed.
While Southwest Airlines, which carries more than 80 percent of the passengers at Hobby, requested the fee, it would apply to passengers on all airlines that operate there. These carriers are AirTran Airways, American Eagle, Atlantic Southeast Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
Dallas-based Southwest said Wednesday it was pleased with the council’s action.
“We support the implementation of the PFC, and we are pleased that it was approved,” Southwest spokeswoman Paula Berg said. “This common funding mechanism will help the airport finance the current expansion project and protect Hobby’s identity as a low-cost transportation alternative for the citizens of Houston.”
No such charge is in place at Intercontinental because Houston-based Continental Airlines is against it. The company says it would make it less competitive with other airlines.
White said the city will have the option to suspend the fee if it drives customers away from Hobby.
Yeah, right. The next time that Mayor White suspends a fee — any fee — we’ll post about it in bold, all caps. I’m never going to have to do that. But please, good readers, do remind me if it comes to pass.
That’s yet another reason to fly Continental, the hometown airline, out of Bush Intercontinental, and avoid the inferior airlines that operate out of that other, inferior airport in town.
Speaking of the southeast side of town, the University of Houston has just passed on a big tuition increase to students:
University of Houston students will pay nearly 10 percent more in tuition and fees for the coming school year, the university system’s regents decided Monday.
The tuition increase will bring the cost of attending UH-Main to $2,926 a semester for Texas residents taking a full-time load of 12 units, up from $2,663 this semester.
By agreeing to the plan, the regents followed the governing boards of the Texas A&M University and University of Texas systems, which recently approved their own similar increases. Campus leaders have defended higher rates as necessary to ensure quality in the face of shrinking state subsidies.
UH’s tuition increase will generate about $27 million, with $6.4 million set aside for rising energy costs, Provost Donald Foss said. The new money also will allow the aspiring research institution to add 30 faculty members and provide 2 percent salary increases.
Foss said the additional faculty positions are needed to keep pace with hiring campaigns at Texas A&M and UT-Austin.
“To keep our place in the hierarchy,” he said, “we have to improve.”
Trying to keep your place — let alone go Tier One — can get expensive.
