In the end, the Fiscal 2003 Iraq war supplemental came close to what everyone expected in the way of airline and airport relief. But it demands something in return―limits on executive compensation, and a General Accounting Office analysis of carriers' attempts to make themselves profitable again and repair their balance sheets. The $3.8-billion aid package, adopted Apr. 12 after resolving differences between House and Senate bills, provides: 1. Nearly $2.3 billion in grants to airlines, divided among them in proportion to how much each has collected in passenger security fees and paid in airline security fees. Passengers pay a security fee of $2.50 per flight segment, capped at $10 per round trip. Each airline's security fee is equal to what it spent on security before the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) took over. 2. A "holiday" for security fees from June 1 to Sept. 30, the last four months of the government's fiscal year. 3.$100 million to reimburse airlines toward the cost of reinforcing cockpit doors by the Apr. 9 federal deadline. 4. Extension of government-provided war risk insurance for airlines to Sept. 30, 2004. The current program was to have ing reported, are widely expected to exceed the grant total (see p. 10).
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