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plane that lands or takes off at a busy airport takes up roughly the sameamount of space and time regardless of size, but the fees paid for using anairport are much higher for larger planes. The airport fees that airlines payeach time they land are based on the weight of a plane, and the nationalair traffic control system is funded largely by taxes on airline tickets. Bothapproaches mean that a regional jet carrying 50 passengers pays much lessthan a large jet carrying 200 passengers, even though each creates roughly thesame burden for air traffic control and the same amount of congestion in theairspace. Similarly, fees are the same whether the airport is busy or empty,even though scheduling an arrival at a busy time can generate significant costsfor other users. This system creates the wrong incentives, encouraging airlinesto use inefficiently small aircraft and to schedule too many flights at the mostpopular airports and times of day.The market-based mechanisms discussed earlier in this chapter can helpencourage airlines to use airport infrastructure more efficiently. Differentoptions are available for using market-based mechanisms to manage airportcongestion. One is to change the structure of landing fees so that planes paymore to land at more congested times and airports. Similar to congestionpricing on roadways, this would encourage airlines and others to scheduleflights at times when the airports and airspace are less crowded. Anotherapproach would be to fix the number of landing and takeoff slots availableduring the busiest times of day, and auction the right to use those slots. Slotswould, in effect, be leased for a fixed period of time, with slots turning overand being reauctioned on a regular basis to accommodate new entrants andpromote competition. Assigning slots through a market process would have asimilar effect to congestion-based fees, because the price of slots at the mostpopular times would be greater than those at less popular times. Under eitherapproach, airlines would have an incentive to schedule flights at less busytimes, and passengers who attach high value to flying at busy times of daywould be able to pay a premium to schedule flights at those times with greaterconfidence that flights will be able to depart on time.Market-based mechanisms could also improve efficiency when airportcapacity is reduced as a result of bad weather or other temporary problems. Forexample, airlines could pay a premium for the right to land with higher prioritywhen capacity is reduced. Airlines that pay for higher priority could advertisetheir higher reliability, whereas other airlines might offer price discounts totravelers who were willing to accept a higher probability of delay.The Electrical GridAlthough they transport electricity rather than goods or people, power linesshare important characteristics with roads and other infrastructure. Buildingtransmission lines requires a large capital investment. Once this capacity is152 | Economic Report of the President