With new regulations that promise to increase airlines costs, and with proposed taxes and fees that will raise the cost of passenger travel, the US airline industry seems to be under siege from the US government at the very time the industry is pleading with Washington to help it out from the economic downturn.

A new departure tax that will cost Southwest and US Airways alone an estimated USD250 million, along with an proposed increase in the security fee has the industry up in arms saying they will conspire to force capacity cuts and the loss of 10,000 jobs along with 181,000 jobs within the travel supply chain.

But that is not the only thing worrying airlines considering new regulations making their way around Washington. The industry is objecting to the Notice of Proposed Rule making published by the Department of Transportation during the summer calling for airlines to begin reporting a host of ancillary fees rather than the few now required. Those include baggage and reservation change fees.

The rule making cites 19 categories of fees on which it wants to gather data, saying it wants to increase transparency for the consumer. In addition, it wants airlines to disclose the number of bags transported in order to provide more accurate information on lost or late bags.