Joe Sharkey’s “On The Road Column” (“You Still Fly Commercial? That’s So Down-Market“) in Tuesday’s New York Times takes a look at the increasing threat posed by private aviation to the coffers of the commercial carriers, as premium passengers continue to abandon first and business class cabins in favor of their own jets.

Sharkey cites statistics from the Stanford Transportation Group which show a 47% decrease in the number of premium passengers aboard domestic commercial carriers between 2000 and 2007. Last year, 41% of all premium travelers flew privately.

Naturally, the commercial air carriers are none to please with the loss of this demographic, particularly as it has often placed a lot of the operational costs on customers in the first and business class cabins. With margins being scraped away on every side, especially with the rising price of jet fuel, private aviation is turning into commercial aviation’s largest target. Most of the scraping in Congress earlier this year regarding the now moribund FAA funding bill, needed for reconstructing the nation’s aging air traffic control system, amongst other things, was on behalf of lobbyists for the airlines looking to shift the burden onto private owners and operators.

Sharkey raises the old canard of private aviation getting a “free ride.” The airlines surely have an axe to grind about the fact that they pay 96% of the costs of a system, despite only consuming 66% of its resources. On the other hand given the lengthy history of federal bailouts of the commercial aviation industry, it’s somewhat specious for airlines to make any arguments regarding fair treatment from the government.