Cite as: 510 U. S. 355 (1994)
Thomas, J., dissenting
the ground that § 1513(b) does not explicitly describe the fees as distinct from ("other than") the fees prohibited in § 1513(a). That construction requires a rather unlikely reading of § 1513(a), however, because it means that the same language defining the scope of the prohibition in that section inexplicably would have one meaning when applied to fees, and quite a different (and more limited) meaning when applied to taxes. None of the taxes listed in § 1513(b), although borne indirectly by airline passengers, would constitute a "tax, fee, . . . or other charge, [levied] directly or indirectly, on persons traveling in air commerce," etc. But a user fee charged to an airline, because it is borne indirectly by airline passengers, would constitute such a "tax, fee, . . . or other charge . . . ." Thus, the prohibition in § 1513(a) would not extend to, for example, property taxes, because they are not imposed on one of the bases listed in § 1513(a), but would extend to other fees or charges, regardless of the basis upon which they are imposed.
Adherence to the plain language of § 1513(a) avoids these problems. In my view, when the statute prohibits a tax or charge "on persons traveling in air commerce," "on the carriage of" such persons, "on the sale of air transportation," or "on the gross receipts derived therefrom," it defines the prohibition in terms of the prohibited basis of the tax or charge. That is, § 1513(a) prohibits the levy or collection of a tax or fee "on" certain subjects. A head tax, for example, is a charge "on persons traveling in air commerce" in that it is imposed on a per passenger basis. A landing fee, by contrast, is not—rather, it is a charge on an aircraft's landing at an airport, without regard to the number of passengers it carries.1
1 Of course, as the Court notes, ante, at 366, n. 9, user fees such as landing fees are not per se excluded from the Act. An airport could not, for example, simply replace a head tax, which is clearly forbidden by the Act, with a "landing fee" calculated according to the number of passengers on an airplane. Such a thinly disguised substitute for a head tax no doubt
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