House Transportation Chairman Proposes Privatizing Air Traffic Control

The Heartlander cites CEI`s Marc Scribner on privatisation of air traffic control:

Marc Scribner, a transportation policy research fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, says reforms of the nation’s air traffic control (ATC) system are long overdue.

 “The United States is now poised to finally reform air traffic control in a manner similar to what most of the industrialized world has done over the past three decades,” Scribner said. “As they discovered, aviation safety regulators make for poor air navigation service providers.”

ATC systems in countries such as Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom are either partially or fully privatized.

Scribner says the current system has held back innovations in the industry, such as the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), a satellite-based air transportation routing system.

“The outdated FAA institutional framework is largely responsible for the ongoing failed rollout of NextGen,” Scribner said. “Moving toward an independent nonprofit model, much like Nav Canada, will enable U.S. aviation to finally inch into the 21st century.”