Originally Posted by
fdcg27
I don't see that the OP has mixed up anything at all.
The question is what benefits would accrue from a privatization of an ATC system that handles far more traffic terminating and originating at far busier airports than Canada and all of the other countries with privatized ATC have combined.
We do have a terminal problem in some US markets, but that's a matter of too many flights trying to use too little pavement. This works pretty well until weather intervenes and no amount of ATC improvement can help with that.
In short, ATC privatization seems like a solution in search of a problem, or maybe someone's wet dream about the profits to be reaped, if only in outsized management salaries in some non-profit scheme.
Thanks, but no.
The real benefit is in funding. Currently, all the budgets of government departments are political footballs. So FAA will suddenly be told as from the end of the month your budget is zero until the politicians get their beans in a row on something completely unrelated to running an ATC system. Staff are then furloughed at almost no notice with no income until the politicians agree (they normally get their missing funds repaid after a month delay but have had to live till then). Or the Agency is told that next year due to a clever political ploy their budget will be 5% less than it was last year despite all the increased spending that had been previously approved by the same politicians for NextGen. Etc etc. So being able to get away from political budget interference would lead to far more stability in funding and multiyear development programs would not be hazarded - as they have been in the past.
The regulatory part of the FAA would remain a federal agency and would be completely independent of the operations by the newly privatized company - as it should be but isn't at the moment.
If NATS and NAV Canada experience is anything to go by, the commercial ATC company would be far more responsive to their users needs and concerns than a bureaucratic government agency.