House Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., is launching a push this week to take control of that system away from the government and hand it to a non-profit corporation directed by the airlines, airports, and labor unions, among others.
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In the 1990s, the Clinton administration proposed restructuring our air traffic control (ATC) system, creating a self-funded organization outside of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
A government watchdog says that despite a doubling of spending on air traffic control operations over the past decade productivity has declined and reform efforts have been ineffective.
“We have the safest system in the world, and we will continue to do so under this bill”, Shuster said.
Share with Us – We’d love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article, and smart, constructive criticism. He serves as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
The FAA has worked on its “NextGen” modernization program for more than a decade and says much progress has been made.
The group that lobbies in Washington for most major carriers has rejected the idea that separating air traffic control from the FAA would amount to a privatization of the nation’s flight navigation system.
Administration officials have taken a cautious approach to the privatization model that is already operating in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom, pointing out that the current federally chartered air traffic system has maintained a high degree of safety.
Under Shuster’s plan the system would still be financed with taxes on plane tickets, aviation fuel and other fees.
Shuster and Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., the aviation subcommittee chairman and the bill’s co-sponsor, gained an influential ally Wednesday when the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents about 14,000 air traffic controllers, announced its support for the bill. Additionally, last week the leadership of the Senate Appropriations Committee sent a bipartisan letter to the Senate Commerce Committee opposing any proposal that would exempt ATC from the annual appropriations process, including Chairman Shuster’s proposal.
But the bill doesn’t specify how the tax and fee structure would be changed because decisions on taxes are up to the House Ways and Means Committee; Shuster is working with that committee, a spokesman said. Delta’s senior vice president for flight operations, Capt. Steve Dickson, has argued that privatizing air-traffic control won’t reduce heavy traffic in the Northeast and could distract from current efforts to ease congestion.
-make changes sought by the drone industry in the FAA’s powers to regulate unmanned aircraft.
Both Republican and Democrat leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee and transportation appropriations subcommittee voiced their opposition as the House is expected to roll out a comprehensive reauthorization proposal-including a measure for an independent ATC-this week.
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Also recently, a new group, Americans Against Air Traffic Privatization, launched a fight against the idea of hiving off air-traffic control from the government.
