WASHINGTON — In a move that could shake up the airline industry, the House Transportation Committee chairman proposes to take air traffic control out of the government’s hands.
Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pennsylvania, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is introducing legislation that would take control of the air traffic control system from the government and hand it over to a nonprofit entity whose directors would include airlines, airports, labor unions, business aircraft operators and private pilots.
In an interview with WTOP on Wednesday, Shuster called the present visual- and radar-based system “a World War II system, that’s been updated over the years so it’s basically a 1960s model.” His proposal envisions a GPS-based system that “can not only make our air space safer, but it can make it much more efficient,” allowing planes to, for example, take more direct routes than they do now.
The Associated Press reports that several lawmakers are already taking a stand against the proposal The senior Democrats on the House and Senate transportation committees, Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, are opposed. Nelson told The Associated Press that the idea would “not only put lives at risk; it’s also an example of fixing a problem that doesn’t exist.”
There’s also bipartisan opposition to privatization from the top members of the Senate and House appropriations committees and their transportation subcommittees, who would lose some of their legislative turf if the FAA budget were no longer under their control.
“We have concerns about any proposal that would transfer all decisions on financial investments and fees — on airlines and the public — to an independent entity that is not accountable to the people we serve,” they said in a joint statement, The Associated Press reports.
Similar opposition is coming from businesses that use their own planes to fly employees, private pilots and air taxi services, for fear that the new legislation would give airlines and large airports disproportionate control over the aviation system.
Most U.S. airlines, with the exception of Delta, support Shuster’s proposal.
“We fundamentally disagree with Delta,” Shuster told WTOP, “There are 11 major air carriers in America, … and 10 of the 11 support our legislation.”
Some U.S. airlines have pushed the idea since the mid-1990s, but it hasn’t taken off in part because of opposition from the air traffic controllers union and its their Democratic supports in Congress, The Associated Press says.
“The time is here to do it,” Shuster said, “to make our air space safer and more efficient when you’re going to go from 750 million passengers flying in the air to a billion in the next several years.”
Shuster says a hearing is scheduled for next week and hopes to get the bill on the floor by the end of the month.
