Says Changes Needed in Managing Aviation Trust Fund

A broad coalition of more than 25 organizations led by Airlines For America (A4A) and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), representing almost every segment of the aviation industry sent a letter to Sens. Maria Cantwell and Ted Cruz, Chairwoman and Ranking Member, respectively, of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

The group started off by commending the administration and congressional authorization and appropriations committees for the ongoing funding of the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. The letter went on to suggest that certain changes to its management of the Airport & Airway Trust Fund (AATF) could give the FAA the ability to more effectively utilize the Trust Fund for necessary upgrades to facilities and to modernize the system. The group points out that users of the system fund FAA operations and system technology modernization through direct tax submissions to the AATF. They also note that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects the AATF revenues will grow at 3.3% per year through fiscal year 2030 and that the AATF has the budget capacity to support additional investments to spur additional growth.

The important point is this: the AATF’s uncommitted balance is projected to reach $5.8 billion by the end of the current fiscal year, and to reach $9.5 billion by the end of the decade. That figure combined with the CBO’s projected surplus show clearly that the AATF is a stable and predictable source of funds to address the critical needs of the National Airspace System (NAS).

What are the critical needs? One has only to look back a year to 2023 when the NOTAM outage shut down the entire NAS for the first time since 9/11. Additionally, an FAA study of its life cycle facility maintenance and repair report of all 21 Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) plus the San Juan and Guam combined facilities stated that only three of the 23 total facilities were classified in “good” condition. Finally, every ARTCC plus more than one-fourth of all FAA facilities are at least 50 years old and many are in need of replacement.

The bottom line is that enabling the FAA to use uncommitted Trust Fund moneys for facility maintenance or replacement or other safety-critical user needs would go a long way to filling the hole the current funding system is digging itself into.

FMI:  gama.aero/