Posted on 01/25/2019 8:29:37 AM PST by SeekAndFind
As the partial government shutdown drags on, the nation's air traffic controllers warn that it's putting the safety of air travel at risk. Here's a solution: Privatize the air traffic control system.
On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced flight delays at several major airports due to staffing shortages among air traffic controllers. That followed a statement released earlier in the week, in which the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, along with pilots' and flight attendants' unions, said that "air safety environment … is deteriorating by the day."
The statement goes on to say that "we cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play, nor predict the point at which entire system will break."
We're not in a position to judge whether the dire warnings of risk are valid, or hyperbole from government workers tired of waiting for their paychecks to show up. Obviously as the shutdown, now in its fifth week, drags on, the strain on various government workers and functions will increase.
The shutdown is clearly starting to have an impact on airport operations. In addition to the delays, Southwest Airlines said Thursday that it will lose up to $15 million this month because of the shutdown's impact on travel. Delta Air Lines said it will likely lose $25 million.
But all of this raises a question: Why is the nation's air traffic control system at the mercy of a federal budget standoff at all?
We noted in this space last week that the shutdown exposed why lawmakers should return the TSA back to the private sector.
Similarly, there's no good reason for the ATC to be a government-run organization. And many reasons why it should the U.S. should follow in the footsteps of several other industrialized nations — including Canada — that have successfully privatized
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What happens when they unionize?
Works great.
Blowback, whack-a-swamp mole. A fulltime game.
Obama made “diversitah” more important than safety.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/06/affirmative_action_in_the_control_tower.html
Canada has privatized theirs. It’s in the hands of a non-profit corporation with all the different stakeholders - airline companies, airport & airport authority owners-magagers, general (commercial and private) aviation, and an appointed government official - all with stakes on the board of directors and its policy making bodies. The actual “air traffic” operations are funded by fees paid by all the different stakeholders, fees agreed on by their board which has members representing all of them.
Many in general aviation lobbied our congress with lies about us adopting the Canadian arrangement. They lied saying: “It will be controlled by the big airline companies”, while they ignored that the format proposed in the U.S. Congress was modeled after the Canadians with all stakeholders - all groups of stakeholders - represented on the board of directors.
Like these guys?
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) is a labor union in the United States. It is affiliated with the AFL-CIO,...wiki.
And what happened when they tried a job action with Reagan?
Careful on the Gen Av smack downs, I am one for the Canadian model, as their 501c3 if you will enables them to have the latest and greatest hardware / software for the towers w/out the intervention we see with Congress and the horror stories of ancient equipment. The Airline Lobby is no fun either. Paul Poberezny’s dream of PVT SEL w/ no medical got fubar’d @ OSH and taken right out from under us via K-Street Lobbying. The circles I was running in @ the time @ OSH were furious, especially Senator Inhofe (no I am not in his circles, but I have met him many times @ OSH). Sausage making at it’s finest is how they treat Gen Av IMHO yuk...
I'm sure we both know the answer to that question. I'm not advocating privatization, I just answered your question as posed. Yes, they will unionize or better yet roll right into the private sector already there.
The union is basically a dem pac!
Atlanta is major air hub
SuperBowl in Atlanta this Sunday
Do the math
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