Helicopter Assn. International (HAI) and the Assn. of Air Medical Services (AAMS) have joined 34 other U.S. aviation groups in declaring their united opposition to a proposal to place the FAA’s air traffic operation in private hands.
In a written statement issued today – on the eve of the Independence Day start of the U.S. summer holidays and their related increase in travel of all sorts – the groups said, “While we enjoy the safest most efficient air traffic control (ATC) system in the world, we also believe that reforms, short of privatization, can better address the FAA’s need to improve its ability to modernize our system.”
That needs include meeting the FAA’s mandate to equip the general aviation fleet with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technology by 2020, the subject of an Avionics and Rotor & Wing International webinar July 13.
HAI and AAMS joined in the declaration with the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), the Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA), the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. (AOPA) and 30 smaller aviation groups throughout the U.S.
“We are ready and willing to work with all industry stakeholders and Congress to advance the consensus needed to improve our current system,” they said, “and to ensure that our nation’s air traffic control system remains the envy of the world.”
They said their opposition was based on “a thorough and detailed review” of a proposal by Rep. Bill Shuster. HAI President Matt Zuccaro has said Shuster’s proposal “will do nothing to increase the efficiency and safety of a system that is already the world’s best ATC program.”
A Pennsylvania Republican, Shuster chairs the House of Representatives’ Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. For many years, he has championed turning over ATC operations to a private corporation. His latest attempt is incorporated in “reauthorization” legislation, H.R. 2997, approved by that committee June 27 and forwarded for the full House’s consideration.
Shuster and fellow advocates argue that privatization will enable more efficient upgrades to and operation of the U.S. ATC system, including reduced delays for passengers and lower fuel burn for aircraft operator.
Opponents claim, among other things, that Congress for most of the last decade has hobbled ATC operations and modernization by failing to provide steady funding of those activities. Shuster acknowledges the point. From 2006 to 2012, Congress passed 42 continuing resolutions and 23 short-term extensions for the FAA. It passed a three-year FAA authorization bill in 2012. The agency has been surviving on funding extensions since that law expired in late 2015.
Privatization has been back by many U.S. airlines, Delta Air Lines being one exception. The privatization push gained the backing of President Donald Trump in early June. But the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s own version of the FAA reauthorization bill, passed June 29, and included no mention of ATC privatization.
The host of aviation groups isn’t relying alone on opposition in the Senate.
In a joint statement today, the groups said Shuster’s latest bill (named the 21st Century Aviation, Innovation, Reform and Reauthorization, or AIRR, Act) “will produce uncertainty and unintended consequences without achieving the desired outcomes.”
They said, “In addition, the billions of dollars and time that would be spent transitioning our nation’s air traffic control system to a not-for-profit entity can be better applied to the continuing progress to updat and modernize our air traffic control system.”
The groups, which include 32 smaller associations, stressed the contributions of general aviation to the American economy, saying the industry “generates over $219 billion in total economic output, supports 1.1 million jobs” and has “a network of thousands of airports and heliports that connect many rural communities to the rest of the world.”
Citing “strong bipartisan opposition in both the House and Senate” to privatization, the group’s said, “we believe efforts should focus on developing a long-term FAA reauthorization that creates the stability and funding necessary and that can reach the president’s desk for signature.”
They committed to “addressing needed reforms that create predictable and stable funding for the FAA including biennial budgeting, consolidating unneeded and outdated facilities, procurement, and certification reforms.”
