I & I Editorial Board‘American travelers shouldn’t be held hostage by politics in Washington. It’s time to privatize air traffic control,” says Rachel Greszler in the Daily Signal.
“The shutdown-induced mess at U.S. airports,” she writes, “demonstrates yet another consequence of leaving our skies in the hands of a politically driven, budget-dependent, and inefficient government bureaucracy.
“It doesn’t have to be this way.”
She goes on to note that “most other industrialized countries have lower-cost, more efficient air traffic control systems that are insulated from government spending battles. That’s because they are commercialized instead of bureaucratized.”
We could not agree more. In fact, we made this case in February. Here’s what we wrote then:
After the mid-air collision at Reagan National Airport, President Donald Trump cast blame on “diversity, equity, and inclusion” hiring practices at the Federal Aviation Administration. But the problem goes much, much deeper than that.
Decades of gross mismanagement and chronic waste have left the FAA’s air traffic control (ATC) system dangerously ill-prepared to safely do its job. And the only fix is a complete overhaul – something Canada and most other industrial nations did years ago.
Personnel is only half the problem with air traffic control. The other is woefully antiquated technology used by controllers. “For over four decades we have reported on challenges facing FAA’s modernization of its ATC systems,” the Government Accountability Office said in December.
The GAO found that:
The Federal Aviation Administration relies on information systems to help air traffic controllers keep the airspace safe and efficient. Last year, FAA determined that 51 of its 138 systems are unsustainable, citing outdated functionality, a lack of spare parts, and more.
Over half of these unsustainable systems are especially concerning, but FAA has been slow to modernize. Some system modernization projects won’t be complete for another 10-13 years. FAA also doesn’t have plans to modernize other systems in need — 3 of which are at least 30 years old.
Just this weekend, the FAA’s critical “Notice to Air Missions” warning system – which relays important information about possible hazards to pilots and airports – went down, causing delays across the country.
This, mind you, is despite billions spent by the FAA over the past 20 years on a modernization project called NextGen, which was supposed to be finished by now, but has been plagued by – you guessed it – cost overruns and delays.
This is the stuff of Third World countries.
So, what can be done? The answer is simple. Do what Canada did in 1995 when Nav Canada, a nonprofit private company funded by user fees, took over the country’s air traffic control system. The result was rapid modernization, increased efficiency, and lower costs for airlines funding the system.
Canada isn’t alone. As the Reason Foundation’s Robert Poole, who is the preeminent expert in air traffic control modernization, noted: “Over the past 30 years, nearly all major countries have separated air traffic control from their transportation ministries and converted it into a user-funded utility.”
Way back in 1993, Vice President Al Gore recommended taking this step as part of his “reinventing government” effort. Nothing happened.
Poole notes that over the past decade a large coalition – including most airlines, the air traffic controllers’ and the pilots’ unions, and “a large number of former U.S. Department of Transportation and FAA officials” – wants to make this change. In his first term, Trump backed a House bill that would “corporatize” air traffic control.
So, here’s a suggestion for the president: Forget about blaming DEI or Biden or Buttigieg, and fix the problem. Unleash Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency and have them drag the nation’s air traffic control system into the 21st century.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
This thing rears its ugly head every time there’s an issue like this. The airlines would like nothing more than to have the national airspace system all to itself. Privatizing the system will exclude general aviation by imposing confiscatory taxes on private aircraft. It’s a stupid idea no matter the situation.
Of course the unions are for it. The Teamsters would probably move in. Every time a contract comes up for negotiation we’d be wondering if the entire ATC system will go on strike.
Canada’s system has major flaws. It relies on US controllers due to system constraints on a daily basis due to mismanagement of NAV Canada. Don’t look to them to be the shining beacon. They leech off of us.
I&I, you’ve convinced me…: I’m not going to fly anywhere!
Reagan mobilized USAF last time and fired everybody. Maybe do that, and reduce flight schedules for a couple years until gear can get fixed and replaced. Might need fewer 6 figure gubdisploybeez in the future because automation.
Use A I and upgrade the computer hardware and software to modernize Air Traffic Control. It’s long overdue. A I can do it better than tired humans
With today’s technology there is no need for ATC, every 1932 radio can be replaced with AI based technology tied into low earth orbit satellites allowing a level of airspace control that would prevent stupid mid-air crashes like the commercial aircraft and military helicopter January 29, 2025, over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia.
Airtraffic controllers as federal employees do not have strike protection under the National Labor Relations Act signed into law by FDR. He was vehemently against giving strike protection to government employees to prevent their appropriation of the leveraging power that can be derived from the government’s monopolies on various services it performs for the public good. This fact allowed Reagan to fire the 10,000 striking airtraffic controllers who went on strike and thereby sought to hold the entire nation hostage to their bargaining demands.
Privatizing airtraffic control may have the unintentional consequence of handing that monopoly leverage into the hands of controllers now serving a private employer who would be granted the authority and the contract right to operate the nation’s airtraffic system.