President Trump announced Monday a plan to privatize the nation's air
traffic control system — a move that would remove the job of tracking
and guiding airplanes from the purview of the Federal Aviation
Administration.
"Today we're proposing to take American air travel into the future, finally," Trump said.
The
nation's air traffic control system was designed when far fewer people
flew, Trump said, calling it "stuck, painfully, in the past." He also
called the system "ancient, broken, antiquated" and "horrible" and said
his reforms would make it safer and more reliable.
The FAA has
worked to upgrade its system, but Trump and other critics say it was
taking far too long. "Honestly, they didn't know what the hell they were
doing," Trump said. "A total waste of money."
Privatization of
air traffic control is an idea long supported by most of the commercial
airlines. Executives from those companies joined the president at the
White House to announce the plan.
Guided by legislation that
has been proposed in the past by House Transportation Committee chairman
Bill Shuster, a private, nonprofit corporation would be created to
operate, manage and control air traffic control nationwide, similar to
what Canada does. The FAA would still have some oversight capacity, but a
board made up mostly of representatives of the major airlines would
govern this corporation.
The air traffic controllers' union is generally supportive
of the proposal, as it sees the current FAA air traffic control system
as somewhat inefficient. The Shuster plan would still allow for the
controllers to be part of the union.
The FAA says it has modernized in recent years by updating its
computers and other systems. Administrator Michael Huerta told an
industry conference in March that the agency has made "tremendous
progress," per The Associated Press.
But some groups have been
critical of efforts to privatize air traffic control operations, saying
it gives the airlines too much control over the system for their own
benefit.
The group Flyers' Rights calls it the "creation of an
airline controlled corporate monopoly." It also says privatizing air
traffic control amounts to "handing the airlines (for free) control over
a core public asset, and providing them nearly unbridled power to
extract new fees and increased taxes from passengers."
Trump
has been critical in the past of the FAA and air traffic control, saying
his personal pilot has complained about how out of date and inefficient
the agency is.
Trump's plan to privatize air traffic control
operations will likely be included in legislation reauthorizing the FAA.
The Senate Transportation Committee will discuss the proposal on
Wednesday, with Trump's Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao testifying.
Chao will again address the issue before the House Transportation
Committee on Thursday.
This plan is part of Trump's broader
infrastructure vision. He may also talk more broadly Monday about what
he has called "third world airports" in particular, as he launches what
the White House is calling the president's "infrastructure week."
Trump
will be in Cincinnati on Wednesday to continue talking about
infrastructure, focusing on inland waterways on the Ohio River including
aging dams
source : http://www.npr.org/2017/06/05/531574945/trump-announces-plan-to-privatize-air-traffic-control.