Congress returned to work earlier this month with a busy to-do list. Among the many issues that lawmakers must tackle is funding FAA. As anyone following the issue knows, Republicans in the House, as part of the new FAA funding bill, have proposed removing the air traffic control organization (ATO) from agency and setting up an independent, not-for-profit entity, dubbed the American Air Navigation Services Corp.
ATI21 fully supports the effort—the details of which are spelled out in H.R. 2997—we’ve made clear in our special report on the topic. Establishing a not-for-profit ATO will help ensure our airspace system develops at the pace of innovation—Uber Elevate, anyone?—while staying among the safest in the world. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misconception about what is on the table, and what it would mean to stakeholders.
Reason’s Bob Poole tackles a few of these misconceptions his most recent Airport Policy and Security News e-letter.
Among the points Poole makes: the new ATO organization would not be dominated by big airlines. As the text of the bill makes clear, the 13-member board would include three nominees from airline groups, and just one, from A4A, would represent big passenger airlines. The two other airline nominees would come from the Regional Airline Association and the Cargo Airline Association.
Another major misconception is that general aviation operators would pay “user fees” that are disproportionate to the services they require. The bill’s text is clear on this, too:
The amount or type of charges and fees paid by an air traffic services user may not—
(A) be determinant of the air traffic services provided to the user; or
(B) adversely impact the ability of the user to use or access any part of the national airspace system.
The bill also expressly prohibits fees tied to aircraft operated under FAA Part 91, 133, 135, 136, or 137—which, in plain English, means general or business aviation flyers. Instead, those operators—like all other users—would pay the fees established by the board, based on guidelines established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and used fund the maintaining and modernization of the U.S. National Airspace System.
Read Poole’s full article for more clear-headed thinking on why ATC reform is right for right now.
