Privatize the FAA

by **DoomYoshi** on Wed Sep 25, 2013 12:32 am

Yesterday, Bloomberg reported on this possibility.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-23/talks-on-private-air-traffic-control-turn-serious-in-u-s-.html

“We should have this discussion,” Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union representing more than 15,000 FAA-employed controllers, said at a June 27 conference on NextGen. “I don’t have the answers, but I do know the current system is broken.”

Yes it is.

However, it will be an uphill battle to change things:

President Bill Clinton’s proposal to turn over air-traffic control to a government corporation was dropped after getting support from only two lawmakers, Donohue said.

Proposals by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to charge fees for flights -- a funding mechanism used by almost all nations that have at least partly removed air-traffic control from government -- also went nowhere in Congress.

Of course, this is one thing Canada is doing right:

One possible model is the one adopted in Canada, where air-traffic control is overseen by a nonprofit corporation funded by user fees instead of tax money.

You would think that congress would want to shirk as much tax burden as possible.

This story really turned some heads. With comments from Robert Poole (who really comments on everything ATC related as that is basically his job); Dillingham, Rinaldi, and Crichton; this is like a who`s who in the fight to change this system over.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-23/should-the-u-dot-s-dot-get-out-of-the-air-traffic-control-business
http://associationsnow.com/2013/09/is-privatization-next-for-air-traffic-controllers/
(Is it just me or does this article reek of plagiarism?)
http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/blog/morning-edition/2013/09/feds-may-privatize-air-traffic-control.html

And of course, with the first whiff of privatization in the air, the traders start licking their lips:
http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/global-air-traffic-control-market-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2013-2019-335760.htm

by **BigBallinStalin** on Wed Sep 25, 2013 12:38 am

One possible model is the one adopted in Canada, where air-traffic control is overseen by a nonprofit corporation funded by user fees instead of tax money.

Funded by fees? Not taxes?

How are the fees charged?

For example, does the government require airliners to impose a 'fee' for each passenger? Or does the government require that 'fee' be charged whenever any aircraft/airliner uses the 'nonprofit' corporation's services?

by **BigBallinStalin** on Wed Sep 25, 2013 12:46 am

In regard to OP, I don't see why airliners can't provide equivalent FAA services (other than, of course, the law prohibiting them from competing against the FAA).

by **DoomYoshi** on Wed Sep 25, 2013 5:04 am

BigBallinStalin wrote:
One possible model is the one adopted in Canada, where air-traffic control is overseen by a nonprofit corporation funded by user fees instead of tax money.

Funded by fees? Not taxes?

How are the fees charged?

For example, does the government require airliners to impose a 'fee' for each passenger? Or does the government require that 'fee' be charged whenever any aircraft/airliner uses the 'nonprofit' corporation's services?

Airliners pay a fee for all the flights they do and then every flight in Canada you pay a NAV surcharge, which is like 10 bucks. Private aviators pay a yearly fee.

Since the board of the nonprofit corporation is populated almost exclusively by the airliners, they ultimately decide how much they are willing to pay for the services they are going to use. As long as the workers remain unionised, this system is the best one.

by **DoomYoshi** on Mon Sep 30, 2013 4:06 pm

Beginning of the month is tomorrow and the sequester is hitting the FAA hard.

Excellent article here:
http://www.airtrafficmanagement.net/2013/09/flying-right/?dm_i=4JU%2C1VABW%2CB2EL9E%2C6P4YT%2C1

n an interview posted on the AOPA Live website on May 5, Fuller talked about the US ATC system as the only major one entirely in government and subject to its budget and political process.

*****

He mentioned Nav Canada as an entity that is far enough ahead of the FAA technologically to potentially take over the North Atlantic and possibly other areas of oceanic airspace.

It also includes a background on the history of the fight to privatize in the US.

The rest of these quotes are from Bob Poole`s newsletter:

Bob Poole puts it best:

The United States was already about a decade behind Canada in implementing digital data communications between pilots and controllers and a half-decade behind Europe; these likely cuts (referring to tomorrow`s US shutdown) will make that even worse.

JetBlue COO Rob Maruster said flatly that FAA has a credibility problem, which causes airlines to hesitate about spending money to equip their planes with technology they might not benefit from until years in the future.
GAO Director of Civil Aviation Issues Gerald Dillingham noted this problem and pointed out it's not really a new issue. "We've looked at FAA for decades, and part of the problem is the culture—and it's very hard to change the culture."