Measure Would Place Air Traffic Control 'In The Hands Of The Stakeholders', Congressman Says

Congressman John Mica (R-FL), the former chair of the House Transportation Committee, has drafted a bill that would privatize air traffic control in the United States. Mica presented the draft bill to the aviation subcommittee at their hearing earlier this week.

"This is a draft bill that would turn air traffic control over to the stakeholders; the air traffic controllers, the airlines, and other stakeholders," Mica said during the hearing.

Mica said that the bill was a "discussion draft", and he asked subcommittee chair Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) to leave the hearing record open for two weeks to give the witnesses at the hearing time to read his proposal and comment on it for the record.

Mica said he plans to submit the legislation on April 16th.

"The time to stop talking is now," Mica said, "it's time to start acting."

Mica said that while his proposal was not exactly like the Canadian model, several other stakeholder-based operations exist.

“After attempting various reorganizations over the past years and creating new positions like the Chief Operating Officer, the FAA Air Traffic Control system remains dysfunctional and behind schedule for technological and operational improvements,” Mica said.

The Washington Post reports that NATCA president Paul Rinaldi and American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, who was speaking on behalf of the airline lobbying group A4A, are in favor of the bill. Parker said the association would prefer a "commercialized, non-profit type governance structure.”

But some on the committee, including the subcommittee's ranking Democrat Rick Larsen (D-WA), said they had a lot of questions that would need to be answered before they could agree to spin ATC off from the FAA. Some of those questions included whether airlines would be willing to pay "much higher" landing fees, as they do in Europe, and if NATCA would expect collective bargaining rights. To that last question, Rinaldi answered "absolutely."

(Image from Mica YouTube video)

FMI: Mica YouTube