In The News
U.S. Air-Traffic Liberation
Next time you’re 27th in line for takeoff on a airport tarmac, thank the federal government. The Federal Aviation Administration runs an air-traffic control system on the best technology World War II could offer, so it’s good news that some in Congress are trying to free up the aviation community to adopt better practices. Next time you’re 27th in line for takeoff on a airport tarmac, thank the federal government. The Federal Aviation Administration runs an air-traffic control system on the best technology World War II could offer, so it’s good news that some in Congress are trying to free up the aviation community to adopt better practices.
By Editorial
Next time you’re 27th in line for takeoff on a airport tarmac, thank the federal government. The Federal Aviation Administration runs an air-traffic control system on the best technology World War II could offer, so it’s good news that some in Congress are trying to free up the aviation community to adopt better practices. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has proposed a bill that would set up air-traffic control as a nonprofit corporation governed by a board of 13 players—airlines, pilots, controllers and more. The FAA would retain its role in regulating safety. Instead of funding air-traffic control through taxes, the nonprofit would collect fees directly from customers. U.S. airlines will serve a billion passengers a year by 2029, but the FAA hasn’t rebooted since the 1960s. You may have more accurate traffic and weather information driving with an iPhone than a pilot cruising at 30,000 feet, as the Reason Foundation’s Robert Poole puts it. Radar still tracks flight location, though GPS can beep out a more precise measurement. Flights last longer thanks to meandering routes as planes pass from one control center to the next. Inefficient patterns burn up fuel. The agency has long planned an overhaul called NextGen that would switch some capabilities to GPS, among other innovations. That has blown up in the hangar: The original cost estimate—$20 billion each from the feds and industry—is off by “an order of magnitude two to three times,” says the Transportation Department’s Inspector General. Eight of 15 major acquisition programs crashed through their budget by $3.8 billion, with four-year average delays. The FAA will miss the 2025 completion date by as much as a decade. Past legislation has exempted the agency from procurement laws, added performance-based compensation and more, to no good result. The $15 billion FAA budget nearly doubled between 1996 and 2012, while productivity declined, according to a January IG report. Enter the Congressional cavalry, with House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster’s plan to spin off the FAA’s air-traffic duties. This is not a radical idea. More than 50 other countries have adopted such systems, including Australia, New Zealand and Canada. A 2005 Government Accountability Office report reviewed five corporate air-traffic authorities and found that safety either improved or stayed the same. GAO also found the providers much more nimble in taming costs and installing technology. The government can then devote more resources to safety. The industry is on board, with exceptions. The general aviation community—say, your uncle with a Cessna—worries that corporate control will harm hobbyists, but the bill exempts such users from fees and bans restricting airspace based on who pays. Delta Air Lines says consumer fees will skyrocket, but in Canada inflation-adjusted fees have dropped by 30% since the switch. Delta’s dissent is rent-seeking: The company’s aircraft are on average years older than competing fleets, and retrofitting would be costly. The air-controllers union has defeated previous reform, but this time it’s on board in part because its members are desperate for better equipment. The Heritage Foundation has called this a union giveaway, but the bill merely carries over the union contract until it expires and allows the corporation to renegotiate. Calling strikes and slowdowns is still prohibited under law. Another worry on the right is that the company could become Fannie Mae of the air, but it’d be a nonprofit with no appropriations from Congress and no taxpayer guarantee. Many on the left can’t abide anything with the word “private,” even as they gripe about America’s “crumbling infrastructure.” Kansas Republican Mike Pompeo has stoked fears about less Congressional oversight, which is part of the point. Mr. Pompeo also says the proposal hands air space to “special interests,” ostensibly because airlines have seats on the board. But two seats go to Transportation Secretary appointees who will push consumer interests, and one to the pilot’s union, which would hardly sign up for whatever airlines wanted. The Shuster proposal isn’t perfect, but it’s the best opportunity in years to bring air travel into modern times. Passengers burn $17 billion a year from delays, cancellations and missed connections, adding up to $30 billion in losses to the economy. Republicans have an opening, if they’ll seize it, to allow private expertise to handle 24-hour airspace the government has proved inept at managing. |