OTTAWA — The air travellers security charge -- that aggravating fee travellers have to pay at airports whenever they want to fly -- netted the federal government an $80-million profit in 2005.

The latest Finance Department report on the five-year-old fee says the surplus will be drawn down in coming years by the higher costs of improvements to Canada's air transportation security infrastructure.

The analysis of revenues and expenses from the fee, designed to help defray the costs of post-9-11 security measures, is based on figures collected by auditors from the auditor general's office.

The fee currently ranges between $10 and $17, down from between $12 and $20 after it was introduced in April 2002.

Through 2005, the federal government had collected more than $1.2 billion in the so-called airport fees from airline passengers, including almost $395 million in 2005 alone -- $7.2 million of which came in the form of the federally imposed goods-and-services tax.

The fees have helped pay for improved monitoring and testing of the air transport security system, the installation of reinforced cockpit doors on about 500 passenger aircraft, the introduction of armed undercover police on some long-haul flights, and a security clearance program.