Is An End To Air Traffic Control Gridlock Near?

Investor's Business Daily ^ | 2/12/2016 | John Merline

[IBD editorial writer]

The nation’s antiquated, balky, delay-prone air traffic control system could finally be a thing of the past, after a House committee approved a bill to transform the horribly mismanaged government-run Air Traffic Control system into a federally chartered non-profit corporation.

[Rummyfan]

Having worked on a program for the FAA back in the 90s, I can state that the Agency is simply an impossible customer to deal with. Paranoid about being taken advantage, management and technical positions staffed by under-qualified personnel advanced by government diversity efforts, one hundred different customers any one of which can say no but must unanimously say yes... A nightmare. They were still running IBM mainframes in the late 90s.

[Bonneville]

From Wikipedia (for what it’s worth):
“Nav Canada is a privately run, not-for-profit corporation that owns and operates Canada’s civil air navigation system (ANS)...Nav Canada, which operates independently of any government funding,[3] is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario.[4] It is only allowed to be funded by publicly traded debt and service charges to aircraft operators.”

[mountainlion]

IBM has already made $2B on a failed computer system. Ratheon will billions on computer and facility rebuilds. PASS union will surely get a big cut.

Obama has already dummbed down the requirements for Air Traffic Controllers will cut wages drastically allowing a contractor to come in and run the system more cheaply than present but still mark up the costs to make billions. Politicians wand bureaucrats will have lots of opportunity to meddle like IRS, EPA have done.

[onedoug]

I still believe in the safety of our commercial aircraft, and the skills and professionalism, particularly of the Captains flying them.

I’ll always fly.

[rllngrk33]

....the Agency is simply an impossible customer to deal with. Paranoid about being taken advantage, management and technical positions staffed by under-qualified personnel advanced by government diversity efforts, one hundred different customers any one of which can say no but must unanimously say yes... A nightmare. They were still running IBM mainframes in the late 90s.

All of this is still true today based on my personal experience.

BTW, they just recently replaced the IBM mainframes.

[BobL]

Yep, pretty much the end of general aviation in this country if it goes through. Very sad, given our history.

[mountainlion]

I still believe in the safety of our commercial aircraft, and the skills and professionalism, particularly of the Captains flying them.

This is true but the professionalism of Air Traffic Controllers and government agencies is dying.

[taildragger]

"Yep, pretty much the end of general aviation in this country if it goes through. Very sad, given our history.",

IBD...

You need to speak with the EAA ( Experimental Aircraft Association ) and AOPA ( Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association ) on this. BobL is right.

The US, ( and maybe Canada, Australia and NZ ) are bastions of freedom to Fly.

I know of at least three pilots that left England ( and or Scotland / Ireland ) to become American Citizens and Fly.

It is like firearms ownership, once we loose it here it is gone, and we ain't getting it back.

It is a pain-in-the-arse to fly in Europe, we don't want to become them.

It is a big story Gen Av is a feeder for Airline Pilots, especially when they are in demand ( big need coming up soon, do your homework on Boeing estimates O is a big story.

Get on it...

[BobL]

“Robert Poole...said the Shuster bill would bring those benefits here...Now the only people who need convincing are Democrats who’ve resisted corporatizing the ATC in the past “

Thanks, this Robert Poole clown needs to be sent to the funny farm. If he had his way, China would now OWN all of our Interstate Highways (sorry, lease them for 99 years) and would be allowed to TOLL US at whatever level maximized their income (hint, that would be on the order of 30 to 80 cents per mile, for passenger cars).

This is one of the very rare cases where the DEMOCRATS ARE RIGHT - ATC works JUST FINE, as their record shows. I don’t care how many new computers and virtual displays they put in the control towers, air traffic is limited by spacing requirements and when the weather is crappy, no computer system in the world will be able to land planes at JFK faster than ATC already does.