Commercial airline flight delays make private jet ownership especially appealing. A Washington lobbying group is blaming the explosive growth of corporate jet use for worsening delays and leaving commercial passengers stranded in airports, The New York Times reports.

Yet with tightly-packed flight schedules and little or no spare capacity, even minor weather conditions cause a domino effect on commercial airlines. Flyers are hit especially hard over holidays and at high-traffic airports.

The price of smooth flying

According to the Air Transport Association, an industry lobbying group in Washington, corporate jets crowd the air and runways but their owners aren’t paying their fair share of taxes to support the air traffic control system.

Currently, 16 percent of the air traffic control system’s costs come from private planes, which includes both corporate jets and weekend fliers, but they only 3 percent of the fees used to run the system, according to FAA estimates reported by The New York Times.

The FAA is proposing an altered fee structure that would replace current ticket tax with a user fee for commercial planes. The FAA is also suggesting an increase on fuel tax for private jets, and extra charges to land at the 30 most congested airports.

The price tag of a new, modern air traffic control system? An estimated $15 billion to $25 billion.

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