House Transportation Committee chairman proposes non-profit air traffic control

As chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) is pushing legislation that would create a private non-profit corporation to operate the nation's air traffic control system while leaving safety and certification with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), he told a National Press Club Newsmakers event Feb. 4.

Shuster anticipates holding a hearing on the legislation, the Aviation Innovation Reform and Reauthorization Act, introduced Feb. 2, on Wednesday, Feb. 10 and finalizing the bill in markup Feb. 11.

The change is needed because the American aviation system is safe, but not efficient, Shuster said. He underlined safety as the first and foremost consideration.

The system is inefficient because the FAA, a 46,000-person bureaucracy, is not sufficiently flexible to implement technology and because it is dependent on the congressional budget process, Shuster said. "Start-stop" funding, 23 budget extensions, sequestration and government shutdowns have prevented the FAA from looking forward, he said.

"There's a political process involved," he added, in which powerful members can block change that isn't good for a particular constituency.

"The bottom line is that we have to stop piece-meal reform and do something transformational," he said.

The proposed agency would be governed by a board reflecting users and the public interest, Shuster said. The agency could issue bonds to finance system improvements, he explained, but the bonds would not be backed by the government so taxpayers would not be at risk.

The air traffic control system is "basically high-tech communication," and a government agency cannot react as a high-tech company does, Shuster said, citing Verizon, which has been through four generations of technology in the 10 years while the FAA has not been able to implement change.

Shuster forecast that the change could increase the aviation system by 30 percent.

More than 50 other countries have separated the air traffic control system from the safety regulator, Shuster said. Failure to follow suit handicaps American aviation and costs American jobs, he argued.

"This is becoming the world standard for how the air traffic control system operates," he said.

Using Canada's experience as an example, Shuster pointed out that for 11 years, service charges did not rise, and were lowered twice. The Canadian air-traffic system demonstrated emergency-response capacity by shutting down on 9/11 as the American system did, he said.

The proposed legislation also addresses funding for airport improvements, safely integrating drones into the air space and consumer issues such as refunding baggage fees for lost baggage, banning talking on cell phones during flights and informing families when they are assigned non-adjacent seats, the congressman said.