SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. ? The federal government has taken billions of dollars from the taxes and fees paid by airline passengers every time they fly and awarded them to small airports used mainly by private pilots and globe-trotting corporate executives.

Some of these “general aviation” facilities used the federal dollars – more than $7 billion over the past decade – for enhancements such as longer runways and passenger terminals aimed at luring traffic, an Associated Press review has found. And the money comes with little oversight, and at the expense of an increasingly beleaguered air transportation system.

“They’re making out like bandits,” said Bob Poole, director of transportation studies at Southern California’s Reason Foundation and author of several studies on air transportation costs. “It’s not only that airline passengers are paying more than their fair share, but they’re being overtaxed to give private jets a free ride.”

Passengers pay as many as six separate taxes and fees on a single airline ticket, adding up to more than $104 billion since 1997, the AP found. Yet these assessments often are overlooked by the millions who click the “buy” button to purchase tickets online, even though they can exceed 25 percent of the total airfare.

More hassles than ever

Meanwhile, travelers deal with more hassles than ever. In 2006, more passengers were bumped, their flights delayed or their bags lost than in 2005, according to the annual Airline Quality Rating report released earlier this month.

“What are people getting for their money?” said Kenneth Button, a professor of transportation at George Mason University’s School of Public Policy and an expert on air transit taxation. “Delays are increasing. How can consumers make a sensible assessment on how the money is being spent? You need an abacus to figure out all the costs.”

Congress will decide later this year whether to curtail the huge public subsidy for small airports, while pilots’ associations, airport managers and other interested groups are fighting to keep it.

Ed Bolen, president of the National Business Aviation Association, which represents 8,000 operators of private jets and other aircraft, said all Americans benefit from the proliferation of small airports throughout the country. They aid emergency preparedness and critical services such as medical evacuations and mail delivery, he noted.

Without help from the federal government in the form of passenger taxes, many would be unable to survive, Bolen said.

“Not all aircraft are the same nor do they impose the same costs on the system,” he said. “If we were grounded tomorrow, the system would cost the same.”

Mark Cooper of the Washington-based Consumer Federation of America said the key question is whether passengers are paying for something and getting nothing in return.

“It costs me more to park my car at National Airport than it costs to park a corporate jet,” he said.

The taxes and fees finance the Federal Aviation Administration and its air traffic control operations, as well as passenger and baggage screening, federal air marshals and police presence at the nation’s commercial hubs.

Millions for smaller airports

But hundreds of smaller airports also are among the beneficiaries. These run the gamut from remote rural airstrips serving crop-dusters and hobbyists to “executive” airports serving corporate jets and exclusive resort destinations:

¢ J.T. Wilson Field in Somerset, Ky., got more than $12 million since 2001, much of it through the influence of local Rep. Hal Rogers, a longtime Republican member of the House Appropriations Committee who uses the airfield for trips home. Wilson Field is home base to 26 small planes and one jet. Despite millions in improvements, including a passenger terminal, the airport has yet to see scheduled commercial service.

¢ California’s Napa Valley Airport collected $6.3 million in taxpayer dollars over the past two years, even though it mainly serves private jets and small planes in addition to being a pilot training base for Japan Air Lines.

¢ Sardy Field, in the ultra-rich mountain playground of Aspen, Colo., has received $27.2 million in funding since 2005. While Aspen does offer service by major airlines, private jets and other general aviation aircraft make up the majority of its traffic, airport officials said.

¢ Austin Municipal Airport, about 90 miles south of Minneapolis, is home base for 25 small planes and three jets, at least two of which are owned by Hormel Foods, a Fortune 500 company with headquarters nearby. Since 2000, the airport received nearly $16 million in federal funding. More than two-thirds of the takeoffs and landing are by small, private planes.

¢ Greenville Municipal Airport, on Maine’s Moosehead Lake, received $4.1 million over two years despite being home to eight small planes and seeing fewer than 6,000 takeoffs and landings per year.

¢ Marion-Crittenden County Airport in rural Western Kentucky spent $4 million in federal dollars over the past five years to transform and lengthen a grass landing strip into a 4,400-foot, paved runway capable of handling jet traffic. The upgrade began in earnest after Tyco Corp. pulled out of the region, taking 300 jobs with it.

James C. Johnson, a former FAA employee and pilot who chairs the local airport board, said the runway allows “corporate decision-makers to get in and out of here in a manner they like to travel.”

Passenger taxes are collected in noncommercial aviation only in instances involving the fractional ownership of private jets, air charter operations and small commuter flights. Instead, it contributes to America’s air transit infrastructure in the form of a fuel tax that covers just a fraction of the services it uses.

“We’re not saying money shouldn’t be going to those airports,” said John Heimlich, vice president and chief economist at the Air Transport Association, a trade group representing the airlines. “We’re saying it shouldn’t be our money.”