Two influential congressmen and staunch supporters of general aviation have come out publicly to allay fears that a move to a non-profit, privatized ATC system would harm general aviation. Their promise? User fees for GA are off the table.
Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Todd Rokita (R-In.), both active general aviation pilots, penned an editorial in The Hill to assure GA interests that draft legislation that would transition ATC out of the hands of the FAA and into a privatized corporate board won’t negatively impact general aviation.
“We have stood front and center in the fight against per-flight user fees on general aviation,” the congressmen wrote. “That position remains unchanged, and we would not even entertain this transition discussion if we found out it would harm the general aviation community.”
More than a dozen general aviation groups recently sent a letter to Congress calling for the release of the draft legislation, which is said to contain provisions for user fees. The congressmen say the rumors aren’t true and that GA pilots can rest easy.
“Ultimately, we want to ensure that these aviators reap the benefits of a modern, efficient air traffic control system,” they wrote. “It is true that our nation’s airspace is complex, and also that our general aviation presence is the largest in the world. But that does not preclude us from designing an Air Traffic Control Organization that is superior to any system in existence today,”
Graves and Rokita criticized the FAA for failing to meet NextGen deadlines, cost targets and promised benefits. “The status quo is not working,” they wrote, “and with each blunder by the FAA it becomes more apparent that the agency is simply not capable of implementing NextGen on its own.”
To critics who say privatized ATC like the systems that have been tried in Canada, the UK and elsewhere won’t work here because of the size and complexity of the U.S. airspace system, the congressmen urged GA interests to trust American ingenuity to get the job done.
“We must adopt our own way that meets the unique needs of our system and its users while continuing to operate the safest air traffic control system in the world,” Graves and Rokita wrote. “The United States led the world in aviation in the 20th century, forever changing the course of human history. Remembering that proud tradition gives us the confidence and resolve to overcome the challenges ahead. To pursue these aggressive reforms would set America on a path to continuing its global leadership in aviation for the next century. To fail would be to fall behind and allow other nations to lead. The bottom line is this: the status quo is not working, and the opportunity to reform it is one we simply cannot lose.”
