Trump Announces Plan to Privatize Air Traffic Control

In a largely anticipated move, President Trump announced Monday that he plans to privatize America’s Air Traffic Control system, as part of a larger goal to update the nation’s infrastructure system. The move would separate air traffic controllers from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and charge a newly formed, non-profit corporation with their oversight.

"Today we're proposing to take American air travel into the future, finally," Trump said, according to NPR.

Moving the ATC to a non-governmental oversight has been a controversial move, with many lawmakers, particularly Democrats, concerned that it will give too much power to airlines and private interests while also favoring larger hub airports at the expense of regional carriers and facilities.

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The House Transportation Committee, however, points to Canada and the U.K. as examples where privatization has worked.

The air traffic controllers union (NATCA), which was not invited to today’s White House event, is generally in favor of such a move, as long as it continues to support a not-for-profit model.

“NATCA considers the status quo to be unacceptable and will oppose any ATC reform proposal that would institute a for-profit model,” said a union representative in a statement. “NATCA previously supported a federally chartered not-for-profit corporation model, as proposed in the Aviation Innovation, Reform, and Reauthorization (AIRR) Act of 2016, because it met our four core principles for reform.”

Among those principles, says NATCA, the new corporation must ensure that “safety and efficiency remain the top priorities.”

Among the major airlines, Delta is the only holdout. It points to rapidly increasing fees in both Canada and the U.S. as a cause for concern. The airline commissioned a study last year, which found that ATC-related costs are growing faster in those two nations than they are with the public system in the U.S. 

Among the core issues behind moving the ATC is a massive upgrade of traffic control to a system known as the NextGen Air Transportation System. First introduced in the early 2000s, NextGen is a long-awaited technology that seeks to convert air traffic management to a real-time GPS guidance system as opposed to the 50-year-old radar-based technology in use today.

An early argument in favor of NextGen was made when Air France Flight 447 disappeared off the coast of Brazil in 2009. The radar-based system was unable to determine exactly where the plane had gone done. A more recent example, of course, is Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, in which the aircraft has never been found.

Of course, NextGen has a far broader application, and when in place will provide a more efficient air traffic system—reducing delays, congestion and minimum separation landing windows at airports around the country.  But while the benefits are great, so are the costs. The FAA predicts complete conversion to NextGen will require upwards of $37 billion, a fee that will be shared by the federal government, airports and the aviation industry.

For President Trump, the FAA is not moving fast enough in implementing the new technology. He says the system was designed when fewer people flew and he calls it "stuck, painfully, in the past." He’s also used the terms 'ancient, broken, antiquated and horrible' to describe it.

“The previous administration spent over $7 billion to upgrade the system and totally failed,” Trump said. “Honestly, they didn’t know what they hell they were doing,” according to The Hill.

“That investment has resulted in $2.7 billion in benefits to passengers and the airlines to date, and is expected to yield more than $160 billion in benefits through 2030,” said the FAA in a prior statement.

READ MORE: Congressional Lawmakers Agree to Fund and Enhance FAA Through 2017

Although the broader brushstrokes are yet to be announced, it is expected that President Trump will incorporate ATC privatization in the next FAA Reauthorization bill. It is an issue that many predict will see fierce opposition in Congress.

“Our nation’s airspace is the safest in the world, in no small part because of the exemplary work of our Air Traffic Controllers and aviation safety professionals at the FAA,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a statement.

“Trump’s ideas for privatizing Air Traffic Control — which recycle a tired Republican plan that both sides of the aisle have rejected — would hand control of one of our nation’s most important public assets to special interests and the big airlines. Selling off our Air Traffic Control system threatens passenger safety, undermines the FAA’s ongoing modernization, jeopardizes access to rural airports and adds to the deficit.”

Many of the airline industry’s senior leadership are headed to Cancun this week to attend the 73^rd annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). It's highly likely this will be a major conversation topic.

The IATA agenda for this year’s annual meeting is extensive. Among the hottest of topics is the ban of larger electronics in carryon bags. But the agenda also calls for discussions on “combating human trafficking, implementing the Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation and modernizing air cargo processes,” according to a statement from IATA. 

Earlier this week, President Trump rolled out a $1 trillion package to develop private/public infrastructure improvements across the country, one of his major campaign promises. According to ABC, Trump’s plan to privatize air traffic control came about after the president met with the CEOs of American, Delta and United Airlines in February.

As TravelPulse’s Rich Thomaselli reported in March, “Virtually all U.S.-based airlines are on board with privatizing ATC—as is the 14,000-member National Air Traffic Controllers Association—with the broad overview being that the FAA’s Next-Gen program to upgrade the air traffic control system is moving too slowly in large part because of yearly Congressional issues surrounding reauthorization.”

Removing the ATC from the FAA could save the federal government some $73 billion in spending, reports The Hill, but it also could potentially cost the government more than $115 in the loss of aviation excise taxes.

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