Early last month, the alarm went off in my hotel room at 3:15 a.m. My goal was to land at Washington National Airport, some 1,850 nautical miles away in the nation's capital, in time to personally attend the press conference announcing the Administration's plan to "corporatize" the FAA's air traffic system. Even though AOPA had studied the plan throughout the previous week, held meetings with participants, and met with the secretary of transportation, I wanted a personal view of how this was presented to the aviation and general press corps. The preflight in the dark, wheels up at 4:55 a.m., a quick turnaround in Quincy, Illinois, and excellent routing and arrival procedures at Washington National allowed me to walk into the terminal building 15 minutes prior to Vice President Al Gore's appearance at the event.
Ironically, here I was at a press conference telling all how our air traffic system in this country is in shambles, yet I had flown on instruments from the West to the East Coast and landed at one of the busiest airports in the country, and all of this within a system that has never appeared broken to me. The speakers, in addition to the Vice President, included Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena, FAA Administrator David Hinson, air traffic employee union leaders, and two supporters from Congress. Interestingly enough, they had staged the event so their backs were to the large two-story-tall window at the main terminal, so throughout the event, airplanes could be seen using the three intersecting runways at National. As each speaker spoke to drastic change being needed, one of the world's busiest airports had aircraft operating as efficiently as one could ever imagine. Large commercial airliners were using the longest north-south runway for arrivals and departures, and general aviation and commuters were using the two smaller and more approach-constrained intersecting runways. Boeing 757s mixed in perfect harmony with corporate jets, light twins, and singles, and catching my attention was a Questair homebuilt that landed and made the long taxi across an airline-dominated ramp to general aviation parking. One could not help but wonder why such radical change is needed to a system that works so well. The safety record for general aviation last year was the best ever, and there was not a single fatality suffered in a major airline accident. As a matter of fact, the last airline disaster at Washington National was the Air Florida crash in 1982, hardly caused by a defective air traffic system.
Throughout the one-hour presentation, the Administration pointed to a system close to creating a disaster. Never once did they cite how a 20-year-old federal corporation, the U.S. Post Office, works so poorly. All they promised was saving taxpayer dollars, yet all of us know the price of a stamp hasn't gone down, and mail delivery problems plague users daily. The Vice President held up a vacuum tube, citing the FAA was a large customer for these tubes, and indicating that, unburdened from government procurement policies, the agency could move faster to modern equipment. Yes, these policies need to be addressed, but think of the equipment we would have today if Congress lost oversight of major purchases. The microwave landing system might be a reality, outmoded by GPS right before the eyes of a corporation that might have allocated billions of dollars to install this system. Mode S transponders might have been mandatory before a cost benefit analysis was performed. Instead, that study is ongoing today.
Think of the cost to a general aviation aircraft owner trying to keep his or her cockpit equipped to meet these rapid equipment changes. If a few facilities still have vacuum tubes, so what? Audiophiles know one the world's most sought after stereo amplifiers is all vacuum tubes. Today's television sets use a big vacuum tube to display the picture, and even the new generation of radar screens for traffic control facilities will use high-resolution vacuum tubes.
The plan calls for the establishment of a wholly owned U.S. government corporation to operate and maintain the ATC system. The U.S. Air Traffic Services (USATS) Corporation would operate as a not-for-profit organization. In addition, a smaller, core FAA would be retained to assure aviation safety and security through its existing regulatory functions.
One key AOPA concern has clearly been addressed by the Administration, and we should acknowledge that it heard our message over the past six months loud and clear: "General aviation and public users will be permanently exempted from user fees." Lots of missing detail is required to fully understand this pledge, but the current plan is that our indirect payments into the system would come from the existing federal fuel tax revenues. The feared direct user charges (airways, FSS briefings, control tower charges, etc.) would only be imposed on commercial users. Congress itself, not the USATS board of directors, would have the only authority to change our general aviation fee structure. Basically, the way the FAA is currently run, Congress could authorize direct user fees, but it would have to face you as voters on this issue.
An 11-person board of directors has been proposed for the new venture, with four commercial aviation seats plus several government and union seats. It takes only a simple majority of the board to ratify decisions. With one board seat going to non-commercial aviation, it appears highly unlikely our voice will be heard.
Does general aviation, or, for that matter, the taxpaying airline passengers, really prefer a board of 11 White House political appointees to the oversight of elected representatives in Congress? Even the airlines, which for years have encouraged an ATC system they can control for economic benefit, had this disclaimer in their press release: "We must reserve our full endorsement of the proposal, however, until we see the details of how the ATC corporation will be governed and funded." In order to bring about the USATS, enabling legislation must be brought before Congress. Such a bill did not accompany the early May announcement, and even when presented, considerable debate will occur prior to a vote.
AOPA continues to oppose corporatization and remains highly skeptical it is really needed. There are a full range of general aviation concerns that must be addressed in detail.
Instead, let's fix specific problems — a fixed-term administrator, exceptions from standard government policies on personnel and procurement, and multi-year funding for airport/airway improvements. A current bill in Congress now asks for a study of ATC reform, within the current FAA structure. AOPA heartily endorses this approach and will work with those legislators who share our views to bring forward these recommendations. At the same time, we will continue to monitor the initiative to corporatize air traffic control. Our U.S. air traffic system has proven itself to be the safest and most efficient in the world. Rather than scrapping it, we need to continue to make it better.
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