Atc organization11/7/2023 Reinvented air travel could be a tough sell, but like all ambitious Beltway proposals, the devil will lie in the details. … We are still stuck with an ancient, broken, antiquated, horrible system that doesn’t work.” Surely, music to the ears of everyone was his pronouncement that the new ATC system will use no tax dollars to create “cheaper, faster and safer travel.” Trump added, “We’re proposing reduced wait times, increased route efficiency and far fewer delays … costing our economy as much as $25 billion a year in economic output. healthcare system or the federal tax code, two efforts that have stalled. Republicans now control both Congress and the White House, and Trump has shown himself to be a man who doesn’t shy away from stirring controversy on the pathway to reform, as with his efforts to re-create the U.S. Trump said he spoke with “passenger advocates, pilot unions, and leaders of airlines and cargo companies,” standing nearby, “who strongly support our new framework and our bidding process.” Absent from the White House announcement, however, were members of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, NBAA or anyone else representing GA, a move that reinforced concerns about who’d really be running the show. What makes this privatization push different from past attempts became clear in early June, when President Donald Trump stood before microphones in the East Room of the White House, announcing the country was ready “to enter a great new era in American aviation,” adding, “It’s about time, too, I can tell you.” And what, many ask, does removing ATC from the FAA have to do with modernization, anyway? Why Now? When the subject turns to how GA and smaller regional airports will fare under the Shuster plan against big commercial hub airports, few hard facts can be gleaned. Uneasiness hardly describes the worries that the privatization proposal stirs in opponents, who see the plan as tantamount to a takeover of ATC by the country’s major airlines. While not specifically endorsing separation, Department of Transportation Inspector General Calvin Scovel’s testimony before the Transportation Committee on ATC reform in May took the FAA to task for years of project mismanagement, while balancing the discussion with a few of the agency’s noteworthy successes along the way.Īviation groups - AOPA, the National Business Aviation Association, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, the National Air Transportation Association and the Experimental Aircraft Association - as well as a number of congressional members from both sides of the aisle, want someone to pull the reins back on privatization lest the plan threaten unfettered access to airspace for general aviation. His plan calls for user fees to finance the new organization and a board of directors to oversee operations. In an ATC reform plan presented last year by Bill Shuster, R-Pa., who is the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, the congressman argued that surgically separating air traffic control from its parent agency represents a critical first step toward ensuring a stable funding stream for ATC. The FAA’s weaknesses running the ATC system certainly are well-documented, and the agency’s failure to bring NextGen fully to fruition despite years of effort and billions in additional funding has been the subject of much criticism. Supporters believe this will be the year that could finally see privatization succeed thanks to support from a Republican Congress and the White House. The FAA has ably operated the ATC system for 80 years, but some in Congress want to spin it off into a private, not-for-profit corporation. Unmatched anywhere in the world for safely separating more aircraft in a month than some countries might in a year is the U.S. Linked with the plan to sever ATC from the FAA come real concerns about whether supporters are avoiding the most pertinent questions, such as how privatizing ATC will solve modernization issues, or whether Congress will actually have oversight of the new corporatized entity. The airlines want to privatize air traffic control, while general aviation interests remain steadfastly opposed.
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