A proposal to privatize the FAA’s Air Traffic Control services is being met with strong opposition by general aviation advocacy groups.
The proposal, part of the Aviation Innovation, Reform and Reauthorization Act (H.R. 4441) was
approved Feb. 11 by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on a vote of 32 to 26. Besides reauthorizing the FAA — which not only provides funding for the agency, but also lays out Congressional mandates — the proposed bill has a number of reforms, including some long-anticipated by GA, such as third-class medical reform and changes to the certification process.
But it also contains user fees for the commercial segments of GA, as well as the proposal to create a federally chartered air traffic control corporation that would be governed by a board of representatives from the aviation industry, with airline interests making up the majority.
And that’s what makes GA advocates nervous. They worry that this will ultimately result in restricted access to the skies for private pilots.
“ATC privatization is simply a bad idea on many levels — it will not solve the FAA’s funding dilemma and will create a substantial number of new problems and challenges that would cripple general aviation,” said Jack J. Pelton, CEO and chairman of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). “Although the bill contains some items that would be beneficial to grassroots aviators, those benefits are overwhelmed by the ominous consequences of a corporatized ATC system without direct federal authority and oversight. Such an ATC privatization plan is simply not acceptable as a part of any FAA reauthorization, especially when there are simple, common-sense ways to solve FAA’s funding issue.”
EAA officials proposed a plan that would use current excise taxes to fund more than 90% of the annual FAA budget and air traffic control services. The remaining 10% would come from the general fund “as recognition of the air system’s importance to all Americans,” they noted.
But Rep. Bill Shuster, chair of the Transportation committee who is spearheading the reform effort, claims “the time for reform is now.”
“Unfortunately, FAA has proven it can’t modernize the air traffic system,” he said. “Delays, cost overruns, and setbacks have been going on for over 30 years. Another recent report from the Inspector General highlighted more problems with NextGen.”
According to the IG, while initial cost estimates for NextGen were about $40 billion, that cost could double or triple, and take a decade or more longer than expected. “So instead of costing $40 billion and hopefully finishing in 2025, realistically we’re looking at up to $120 billion, with completion in 2035 or beyond,” he noted.
“Without a doubt, Congress and political interference is part of the problem,” he continued. “But the basic problem is that the FAA is a huge bureaucracy – it’s not a high-tech service provider.
“Congress has tried procurement and personnel reforms at FAA, but the agency has failed to implement them,” he continued. “The time for piecemeal reform is over. Otherwise we’re just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”
The proposed corporation, which will be independent of the federal government, “will simply provide a service,” Shuster explained.
“The bill doesn’t give the airspace to the corporation — that remains in the public trust. And the FAA remains absolutely responsible for regulating the airspace and aviation safety,” he said.
He has the backing of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, who note that the current system “can’t keep up.”
“The current aviation system has served us well until recent years,” NATCA President Paul Rinaldi testified before the committee. “Unfortunately, we no longer have a stable or predictable funding stream and this uncertainty has caused many serious problems for the system.”
He pointed to the problems in 2013 with sequestration, when the FAA scaled down its projects, tried to close air traffic control towers, stopped controller hiring, and went to a “fix-on-fail maintenance philosophy.”
“These decisions were all made in order to meet the budget restrictions of sequestration, not for operational reasons or to ensure safety,” he said.
On the flip side, officials with the Alliance for Aviation Across America note the proposal could have a “significant impact on rural communities, consumers and citizens across the country.”
The proposal raises a lot of questions, which must be answered before Congress makes such a sweeping change to the system, alliance officials note, such as: How could Congress be assured the airlines won’t have undue influence? If the airlines are basically governing themselves, what recourses would consumers have for complaints and mistreatment? How would a privatized system protect rural consumers and ensure consumers’ access to small and mid-sized airports? How will we guarantee that medical flights on smaller aircraft can get in to an airport near a specialty health care center and ensure that financial interests don’t create perverse incentives or prioritize balance sheet concerns that create situations that could endanger Americans in need of emergency medical care? Would local cities and towns be increasingly saddled with the costs of keeping their airports open?
While the questions need to be answered, it’s important to note that the process is just beginning, with Pete Bunce, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, saying we’re just in the first quarter of the game.
“There are many quarters to play in this game before it gets to the Senate,” he noted.
The bill now moves to the full House, where it is expected to come up against strong opposition. No date has been set for consideration by the full House. Meanwhile, the Senate still has offer its own proposals.
Current FAA reauthorization expires March 31, with most Washington watchers saying another short-term extension will be needed before a reauthorization bill is hammered out.
All this bickering over whether ATC should be privatized… just go to other countries and see what happens when it is…. As for saying the company running it will be ‘non-profit’…. that is just a piece of paper for tax purposes. EVERY company on this Earth works for profit, no matter what their tax status. Look at all those Televangelists begging you for more money to buy themselves a new Gulfstream to “spread God’s word”. Go to the parking lot for AIRSERV offices (in Redlands, CA I believe it was), everybody drives Mercs, Porsches…. and not the ol’ stuff either..
When ATC is privatized, You jolly well can expect to orbit on the downwind for a very long time to let the airliners in.. 15-20 minutes not uncommon where I am flying.. Traffic 50 miles out…. orbit on the end of downwind….
Expect charges for every single landing, go around, filed flight plan, pushing that mic button.Charges for walking to your plane, after buying fuel, Oh, you gonna pay for the fuel truck on the ramp also, and for each person in the truck, and expect the vfr into imc accident rate to go up, since pilots will become reluctant to file ifr while in the air upon encountering adverse conditions… Because, as we know, it will not be free.
The sad thing is, it’s not about the FAA having the money to do the job, they do. Just ask them. The present system generates enough finances for them to have a surplus, but they do need technical help to modernize. THAT should be sub-contracted to a capable company. Then they get paid for the service and that will be the end of it!
The only reason that this privatization is not going away is that a certain politician is dating an airline lobbyist after his wife died a few yrs ago (do the research, it’s out there)….. passing this bill will make that couple wealthy beyond anybodies’ wildest dreams….
To All,
First off, I have read the whole proposed bill introduced by Rep. Bill Shuster and have kept up to date on most of the proposed changes made by various other committee members. I have come to the conclusion that this “Privatization” bill is a Bad and Wrong idea for the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system and all the users of the national airspace system.
I have googled and read the Pros and Cons of privatization and again have come to the same conclusion, this is a very bad idea for general and flying public as a whole. The reason for this is ATC is a singular entity with no public equivalent or counter part. Just like the Police, District Attorney, Prisons, Military, etc.
These are public functions and must remain so because of the impartiality without regard to size and frequency of use. If ATC were to become privatized who is to say it will be fair to all who use the system ? answer : It can’t and won’t.
In my 35 years as a certificated and professional pilot I have seen numerous times when other commercial aircraft operations have had priority over non-commercial operations. What makes this idea of privatization won’t give priority handling to commercial handling to the preferred members of the Board of Directors over their competitors ?
Also, what about the average Joe pilot who want’s to practice approaches. Instead of doing two or three in an hour only does one because he is in front of an airliner that has to meet a schedule. “No Sir” this is totally unsafe for everyone, all the while costs keep going up. Proficiency and training also goes down.
Look at Australia it’s classified as a continent but has minimal aircraft activity because it costs every time the microphone is pushed. Europe, the same way. Canada the same. If privatization comes into being many industries will slow or shut down because of the lack of activity. Why do many foreign countries send there people here to learn to fly ? answer : Because it’s cheaper. Privatization won’t let that happen. Fees will always creep in somewhere just like taxes. Maybe not now, but in the future it will happen. Just look at Social Security from it’s original creation to present day. Hmmm.
Our country was built on Freedoms and those freedoms are built on a minimal of gov’t intervention. So how can privatization not be intrusive in our daily lives. Also, if you make a mistake and bust an altitude with no loss of separation or other safety factor will the privatization of ATC say don’t worry about it ? answer : I think not. A corporation will want to use that as a tool to extract more monies and control to show how well they are doing. It would be similar to getting pulled over by a police officer for a minor infraction and not giving that police officer the discretion about writing a citation or not. This is not the American way.
I have posted comments on three other similar subjects on this website 2-4-2016,/ 2-3-2016,/1-30-2016. Please feel free to read them and post your opinions.
Again, ATC should not be privatized. Privatization is a bad idea for ATC and the public as a whole.
Jeffrey… NOT SO. If you actually had read the Schuster Bill, your would have realized and understand that it ISN’T “Privatization” at all. It is NOT a private entity. Instead, it would be a NON-PROFIT entity essentially supervised by a board of actual stakeholder Airspace users. The challenge is to assure that GA has adequate representation on that Board,… NOT to argue against the ATS splitout and reorganization of the remainder of FAA, so as to preserve an incompetent FAA for more decades, and endorse a failing ATS system (and severely flawed NextGen) that will eventually crush what is left of GA both from an airspace access as well as cost perspective.
FAA is massively failing, …from flailing on seriously bad policy on things like cylinder ADs, to a completely ineffective and counterproductive set of drone policies, to 50 years of policy foulups on medical criteria, to failing ATS modernization, to abdicating proper configuration of pilot standards, leading to a completely wrong-headed improperly specified 1500 hour F/O requirements (when 400 hour pilots are safely flying vastly more complex aircraft and missions in supersonic jets, and ab-initio trained F/Os are already safely helping fly multi-crew widebodies)…
Your ill-conceived resistance to considering this much needed re-constitution of both FAA from a regulatory policy perspective, and long needed separation of ATS and re-design of Nextgen is in the face of evidence and the facts, is entirely illogical. If your advice to keep FAA intact and joined at the hip to ATS while sustaining the direction of foundering failing NextGen (to the tune now predicted of $125B by 2035) is heeded, the outcome will be a disaster for all aviation, and will especially do nothing but hasten the death of GA, as we know it.
To ManyDecadesGA and All,
Sir, As I have mentioned before in our previous discussions on this subject on this forum. You don’t post your name and that does not give me the warm and fuzzy feeling you are a true and genuine person with honorable intentions. In plain English, You are hiding behind the something and who knows what else.
Second, This privatization bill we are talking about creates a board of directors mainly served by the airlines. Why, because they have money and lots of it to influence whatever they desire. Just look at the voting numbers. GA only gets two votes on an eleven member board. Hmmmm. How can that ever be fair or even come close to voicing a strong opinion ? answer : It can’t.
Third, if you look at privatization you will see it really is a “Ghost Organization” as I call it with no one in charge or responsible for it’s actions. The Board of Directors are not beholden to the Voters, Congress or the President. What have they got to lose ? answer : Not a dam thing. If they make a mistake or screw up it won’t reflect upon them. Sorry, that’s a fact.
Bottom line, they are insulated, in control, and no outside influence can say anything to them.
Another thing about privatization and tell me if there isn’t collusion, favoritism, and downright incompetence.
I am talking about Los Angeles County. Just take a look at the local politics of Los Angeles County (Within the second largest city in the nation, New York being number one).
Los Angeles County has the annual County Fair and it is also ran as Non-profit organization with a board of directors. According to the L.A. Times newspaper the members of the board of directors take home a salary of over $900,000 in pay and benefits. Hell, that more than the president of the United states. Again Hmmm. What gives ? How much are these members of the board of directors going to make and what perks are going to get ? Nothing what the average Joe will ever come close too. Interesting, Non-profit, Ha ?
According to the L.A. Times article the Fair has lost money for the past couple of years and yet the members of the board of directors don’t get fired or replaced. Remember, this is a County Fair for entertainment not a national airspace system where air travel is essential for our way of life.
I think rational people will see this idea of privatization is a Bad and Wrong thing for such a precious national treasure to be left in the hands of an eleven member board of directors who run the airlines and there is no control from Congress or the voters.
No Sir, This is just plain Bad and Wrong bill and idea.
Regards,
Jeffrey Aryan
Jeffrey, I am hiding behind absolutely nothing.
I and my family have been in GA, and in this aviation business, since the 30’s, …and I care about nothing more at this point than the sustained healthy future of GA, so that my grandchildren and their grandchildren will have the same equivalent opportunities that I once had, of things like most enjoyable flying Cubs for $6/hour, wet, …that eventually led to an entire flying career of extraordinary good fortune.
GA isn’t LA, and neither is FAA. You have not one word of valid rebuttal for FAA’s hopeless state, either from a severely flawed regulatory perspective (from inappropriate cylinder ADs to, obsolete medical standards, to faulty drone rules, to massively screwed up airmen certification criteria, to overspecified NIC and NAC and irrelevant criteria in RTCA DO-260B for a severely flawed ADS-B. Worse yet, you have no solution better than the Schuster Bill for solving the issue of an ineffective obsolete and vastly overpriced ATS system, compared to what it now could be, if properly re-designed, modernized, and supervised by real actual airspace users. The challenge for GA is not to protst the Schuster Bill, but instead to argue for and advocate getting an effective level of representation on the new ANSP board, with participants that are aviation technically and operationally qualified, to help steer NextGen in a much better, more effective, and lower cost direction. Arguing now for maintaining the FAA status quo, or perhaps adding a few token band-aids on FAA, will solve nothing, but most likely further accelerate GA’s death, by regulatory and economic strangulation.
To ManyDecadesGA and All,
Sir, I stand by all of my previous remarks.
Also, I have reread your statement that the proposed bill is not “Privatization”. I disagree and here is the proof.
Air Traffic Control is currently a government function and if the proposed bill becomes law then it will be turned over to a non-government group. Now how is that not “Privatization” answer : It is and you are wrong.
Second, As we discuss this issue today on February 21, 2016 about the airlines taking over this function of government most of them are pretty good financial positions and seem to be in a hiring phase.
Well, what happens when the market goes down and the airlines start laying off people ? What do we do then ? As I recall it was just a few years ago the airlines were in desperate financial shape and were laying off thousands of employees including asking their employees to take pay cuts. Hmmm.
Yes, I am aware that the medical reforms sought by the AOPA, EAA and others have just been thrown in as a bone to GA so this can get passed. (Please see thru the rhetoric)
Why ? answer : Because, This bill can’t stand alone on the issue of having an Airline controlling Board of Directors with no oversight from Congress, Voters or the President our nations air space and Air Traffic Control. This is real biggie. No real oversight. Hmmm.
Your arguments don’t hold water and if this bill passes it will be the real death end to GA in this country as we know it. The reason is, Who would want to fly except the very wealthy. Which average person could afford to train, stay proficient or just go out and enjoy a nice weekend flight without taking out a bank loan.
I also imagine all the aerospace companies would also have a stake in this if the bill passes. Let’s face it, with costs projected to go up who would want to upgrade or repair anything other than the legal minimum ? answer : Not a lot of people.
Another thing I see is a shrieking market of people willing to purchase aircraft. With fewer buyers then prices will go down or some planes will be sold for their scrap value.
Again Sir, I stand by my previous statements that this is a “VERY BAD and WRONG proposed change in the way Air Traffic Control is run. Air Traffic Control is a singular government function just like the military and you can’t have it run by a bunch of mercenaries.
I have posted my name to show my sincerity and be counted that this bill is Bad and Wrong for our way of life. It would be very interesting to see your correct and complete name posted while you stand up voice your opposition.
Regards,
Jeffrey Aryan
To ManyDecadesGA ,
Sir,
You are just plain wrong.
Regards,
Jeffrey Aryan
Great summation. This all correct and right on. Give this person an A+.
Let me get this straight — the Airlines will be the biggest representation of the ATC board. The same guys that said that GA was causing delays, was flying in the commercial airspace and causing delays because airlines were getting vectored the GA aircraft just a few years ago.
So these guys are going to be the majority of such a board. But, the US Gov’t will still own the airspace.
This commercial airspace, is that CLASS A, B and C?
And every time there is a change to CLASS B & C space, isn’t that done for the benefit of the air-carriers and most always to the detriment of the GA traffic?
We need to make sure that Congress pays attention to how the Air carrier management does things before we ever consider ATC becoming a private corporation owned by the Fed Gov’t/
So lemme see if I have it all correct … Both AOPA and EAA have said that passing medical reform is their number one priority. Super! At Airventure 2014, the “Administrator” blew everyone off on medical reform by passing the buck to the DOT level saying, “it’d be about 90 days for an answer.” Same thing in 2015, a year later. Now along comes HR 4441 — almost 2 years later — which pretty much exceeds what both organizations originally petitioned the FAA to pass on the area of medical reform (and pretty much what Sen Inhofe wanted) along with several lessor goals plus an ongoing funding mechanism for the FAA ATC funding and now both are punting and cherry picking. Give me a break AOPA and EAA, et al !! WAKE UP !! The GA pilot population feeds the professional pilot population. Already, airlines are cutting back on flights and one is considering shutting down altogether.
GA in the USA is almost dead … the only salvation — short term — is to keep the pilots we have flying … kinda like when the FAA finally woke up and extended the allowable age for airline pilots from 60 to 65. It was a band aid fix — short term — but did help airlines keep highly experienced pilots in the cockpit. In like manner, we have to keep older GA pilots flying until we figure out some way to reinvigorate GA. The airport infrastructure in this Country is dying … just like the pilot population.
Bottom line. The Federal Aviation Administration AND it’s Administrator AND it’s highly paid bureacrats running individual out-of-control FAA fiefdoms ARE the problem. If they won’t do their jobs, fire them and at least try something else. THAT is what HR 4441 is all about. Let the highly paid GS-14 ATC types able to retire at age 55 go out and work for contractors at lessor salary and work until 65, I say.
CONGRESS … PASS HR 4441
” …. the proposed bill has a number of reforms, including some long-anticipated by GA, such as third-class medical reform and changes to the certification process.”
What would be the changes to the certification process?
The only way GA is going to preserve economic generalized airspace access for the long term is to break up the entirely obsolete massively dysfunctional FAA, split out ATS as a separate ANSP, and reconstitute the criteria side of FAA (AVS/AFS/ and AIR) with highly aviation experienced executives, and operationally experienced specialists, as ATS is established as a separate NON-PROFIT entity under the guidance of airspace users. Instead of just whining and making proposals that will not only NOT solve the problems of FAA or ATS, Jack Pelton and Pete Bunce need to advocate adequate GA based oversight for the new board, and support a top to bottom redesign of NextGen (it ought to instead be called PastGen – examples why abound), that is heading straight for a massive $40B failure. Even if the touted $120B were eventually thrown at the present seriously flawed NextGen design by 2035, it STILL WILL NOT WORK!
Hence, Shuster is correct in his approach to now break up FAA, whereas Pelton, Bunce, and NBAA are seriously wrong. It is now time for GA to wake up, and maybe get better more knowledgeable representation with better knowledge of the global airspace system, and what it really needs to be economically and operationally successful, in this very important Shuster Bill Congressional argument.
I have great respect for Jack, Pete, EAA and GAMA. However, as Rep Shuster stated the FAA has just grown into such a big bureacracy it can no longer function. Despite laws requiring the implementation of NextGen & Part 23 rewrites the FAA, kind of like the IRS, just chooses to ignore Congress and continue to move at its own pace – slowly. Moving ATC into a separate entity overseen by stakeholders may make it more responsive to our needs for 50 years or so until it to, feels entrenched and unable or unwilling to listen to the people, through their elected representatives. The medical reforms alone make this bill tolerable. ATC will need to service GA as I am sure their funding will be dependent on traffic counts.
Well Spoken Charlie. In addition, EAA and AOPA should both argue for increased proportional representation on the new ATS oversight board, and assured legislative protection for “no user fees” beyond something like perhaps fuel tax provisions, for any ASMEL under 12.5K piston operations, whether flown under FAR91 or FAR135, …in return for supporting the Schuster Bill.
This splitout of ATS and reconfiguration of FAA’s AVS/AFS/AIR simply needs to happen, or GA will eventually be strangled to death by excessive unnecessary costs, and more severe airspace access provisions, along with a plethora of other nonsensical obsolete unnecessary rules or policies like the existing counterproductive medical criteria, to overspecified and excessively stringent ADS-B equippage policies.
The medical reforms are just us getting thrown a bone so that hopefully we will go away and not fight this ill conceived bill. That is the way that DC works these days, put something good in with something bad and hope that the desire for the good will make people overlook the bad. And that is exactly how our government has managed to get the country so totally screwed up. I say take each of this bills major provisions a stand alone bill and see how much support this “Land Grab” proposal for ATC priv1tization can really muster. Stay the course with PBOR II and forget this Wolf in Sheep’s clothing.
Well said Sarah.