Airports are funded by passenger fees and another trust fund.
A 1973 law prohibiting airports in the United States from charging passenger fees was changed in 1990.
The rest comes from passenger fees, parking charges, rent from retailers and so on.
Those include using money raised by passenger fees for higher wages and health benefits, pensions, vacation pay and promotion opportunities for workers.
The difference this time was a plan to use airport passenger fees to help pay for the AirTrain, which connects the airport to subway and Long Island Rail Road lines.
But what about the airports, which have been complaining that they cannot raise their passenger fees even as the airlines raise or impose surcharges at will on everything except the cabin air.
Twenty years since the first charters arrived, the airport is now the group's moneymaker, bringing in more than $20 million a year in passenger fees, while refueling, catering and other services increase profit even more.
It was also opposed by the airlines at Kennedy, which contended that the money for the project -- which is coming from passenger fees collected at the airport -- should not be spent for work off the airport grounds.
No one has tried that — at least not yet — but one small airline has led the way in the United States when it comes to passenger fees: Spirit Airlines, the no-frills carrier that prides itself for offering the lowest fares, then charging passengers for everything else.
International travelers are even more likely to feel the tax collectors' pinch, as governments around the world have increased passenger fees to pay for security, airport improvements, customs inspections, tourism promotions and environmental concerns — though critics say many of these taxes end up in general treasury accounts.
