[Yosemitest]

First ... I'm a retired air traffic controller,
4 and 3/4 years in the Air National Guard,
24 plus years in the USAF,
and 5 years in the FAA,
all actively controlling air traffic, and 99 percent of it in control tower operations.

Now ... that being said ...

"Can the FAA Be Trusted to Fix Air Traffic Control?"

The answer is a very loud "NO!!!";
At least as long as the Union is involved.
The USAF has the best training policies, and management for ATC.

If it was up to me, it would be turned over to the Department of Defense (DoD).
Privatization of ATC might work if you got the government to take the insurance liability.

[Kaslin]

Excellent expertise post

[Da Coyote]

This man speaks the truth. USAF controllers were the best.

(Admitted prejudice from a USAF instructor and test guy)

[Da Coyote]

This man speaks the truth. USAF controllers were the best.

(Admitted prejudice from a USAF instructor and test guy)

[diogenes ghost]

"The USAF has the best training policies and management for ATC."

Oh lordy, that is truly laughable.

In the modern FAA ex USAF controllers are able to handle the upgrade to FAA Enroute; but only because of lower requirements and FAA's 'no-fail' policy.

Prior to that, they were normally inferior to new hires off the street.

My 35 years were all Enroute, starting with 13 years at Chicago Center, the busiest facility in the world, with NO computers, limited radar coverage, hand-written strips, following targets by pushing plastic chips across the screen, relying greatly on time/speed/distance calculations in your head.

The initial CAA cadre did have a lot of AF guys, only because the job was basically unknown to most. Once it got some ink, the AF numbers dropped radically.

Perhaps the AF guys do better in TRACON/Tower crossovers, but it just wasn't so in ARTCC upgrades.