Free the air traffic controllers

Free the air traffic controllers

I have previously written that the education of our children is too important to be left to the government. The same can be said of many things especially the air traffic controllers. Why are they government employees? The specter of 10% of flights being cancelled due to this silly government shutdown gives us the opportunity to take a long hard look at this arrangement. First, how is the system funded in the first place? Are the controllers’ salaries being paid via appropriations out of the general fund or are they being paid like at some federal regulatory agencies in which the regulated firms pay a fee to the specific regulator? The AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) website says “Federal aviation programs related to aviation, comprised of air traffic control and navigation systems, regulation and certification, and capital improvement grants to airports, are all administered by the Federal Aviation Administration and financed with annual appropriations by Congress.” Further “Air traffic controllers in the U.S. are primarily funded through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which receives most of its budget from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF). This fund collects revenue from aviation-related taxes, including those on airline tickets and fuel, but is subject to congressional appropriations and can be affected by government shutdowns.”

Ok the funding does not come from the general tax fund but from monies related to air stuff (a technical term). Why can’t this funding be from assessments just like the Federal Reserve’s funding? In almost 100 other countries air traffic control is treated like a public utility. The fees go directly into what is essentially an ATC utility and is independent of the government’s purse strings. As one of my friends observed, the government being the employer of the air traffic controllers is analogous to the government paying doctors’ salaries where in countries like England, the doctors collectively can go on strike. Can you imagine our doctors going on strike?

Today’s modest proposal is to file for a divorce. ATC should be taken out of the hands of the congress and accorded independent agency status. The Trump Administration is all about shaking things up so do this. Doing Trump’s first term one attempt was made to do this. It was modelled after the Canadian system of a self funded corporation independent from the federal government with the government maintaining oversight. It had the support of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the Business Roundtable and the major airlines. It made it out of committee but for never got a floor vote. There was a campaign against the bill led by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), a lobbying group for private business aviation which said that the big airlines would take over the ATC to the detriment of private planes and rural states. If I were the president, I would get this group on board and pass the legislation.

Are we as smart as the Canadians, the New Zealanders and all the other countries that somehow manage to depoliticize their air traffic control systems? Apparently not.