Bolen Invited To Testify Before House Committee

In testimony Wednesday before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen warned of the potentially harmful consequences inherent in the creation a privatized air traffic control (ATC) system, funded by user fees, as proposed in H.R. 4441, a bill to reauthorize the FAA.

“Our nation’s air traffic control (ATC) system is a monopoly, and will always remain a monopoly,” Bolen noted in testimony before the committee. “So, the question on the table is, who will control that monopoly – the public’s elected representatives, or a board dominated by big airlines? H.R. 4441 is proposing to give away our monopoly ATC system, free of charge, to the nation’s big airlines. That is a fundamentally flawed idea.

“Some have asked NBAA and others in general aviation what ‘protections’ we need in order to go along with the plan to give unbridled authority to the airlines,” Bolen continued. “The very question itself is a tacit acknowledgement that real dangers exist.

“The turnover over of our ATC monopoly to the airlines represents a serious threat to the future of general aviation, and the citizens, companies and communities that depend on it. It is a poison pill, and no sugar-coating can change that.”

Bolen noted that 85 percent of NBAA’s members are small and mid-sized businesses, often operating from small towns and communities. “This legislation puts at risk vital access to airports and airspace for those companies and communities,” he said.

“We know that when it comes to air traffic modernization, the status quo is not acceptable – but neither is turning over our nation’s aviation system to the commercial airlines,” Bolen added. “We support a third way forward that would implement targeted solutions to identified problems, in order to ensure America’s aviation system remains the world’s best in all aspects, for the next five years, 10 years, 25 years and beyond.”

The EAA offered its thoughts in the form of a written statement that was added to the record of the hearing.

As part of the full statement that was included in the House committee hearing’s official record, EAA also advanced a plan that would annually fund more than 90 percent of the FAA’s current and future budgets through the excise taxes already collected from users of the national airspace system.

“ATC privatization is simply a bad idea on many levels; it will not solve the FAA’s funding dilemma and will create a substantial number of new problems and challenges that would cripple general aviation,” said Jack J. Pelton, EAA’s CEO and chairman. “Although the bill contains some items that would be beneficial to grassroots aviators, those benefits are overwhelmed by the ominous consequences of a corporatized ATC system without direct federal authority and oversight. Such an ATC privatization plan is simply not acceptable as a part of any FAA reauthorization, especially when there are simple, common-sense ways to solve FAA’s funding issue.”

EAA’s strong opposition is based on a large number of factors, including:

• A privatized ATC system would take services away from federal oversight and place it in the hands of a board controlled by those with the greatest financial resources;
• Threats to access and services for general aviation and rural airports without commercial service;
• An ATC board weighted toward airlines and commercial aviation, creating conflicts of interest;
• Loss of FAA control over safety oversight, while creating a large parallel bureaucracy;
• Creation of a congressionally mandated monopoly managed by private interests;
• Unlimited civil and tort liability for a new ATC corporation, which could financially cripple such a system.

“It is not as simple as scaling up systems used in Canada or Europe, given the enormously larger traffic and complexity of the American airspace system,” Pelton added. “EAA’s plan would enable the FAA to maintain the world’s safest air traffic control system while having the funding it needs to modernize.”

EAA’s plan would use current excise taxes to fund more than 90 percent of the annual FAA budget and air traffic control services. A small contribution (less than 10 percent of the FAA budget) would come from the federal general fund as recognition of the air system’s importance to all Americans.

(Source: NBAA, EAA news releases)

FMI: www.nbaa.org, www.eaa.org