CBO Raises Cost Estimate of ATC Privatization to Almost $100 Billion

Stephen Pope

Thursday, August 17, 2017 at 09:08 PM ET

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Key Takeaways:

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) dramatically increased its estimated cost for the 21st Century AIRR Act, which proposes privatizing air traffic control (ATC), from $20.7 billion to $98.5 billion over 10 years.
This substantial cost increase, coupled with existing bipartisan opposition, has rendered the bill "all but dead as written," making its passage highly unlikely.
Critics, including general aviation leaders, argue that the privatization plan would create a costly monopoly controlled by major airlines and is unnecessary given the existing, highly-regarded FAA-managed ATC system.

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Maybe now Bill Shuster, Donald Trump, Elaine Chao and Sam Graves will finally give up on their plan to remove air traffic control from the FAA and hand it over to a nonprofit corporation. The four main backers of the proposal received some devastating news yesterday as the Congressional Budget Office revised its estimate of the impact on the deficit of Rep. Shuster’s 21st Century Airr Act from $20.7 billion over 10 years to $98.5 billion.