Steve Dickson

Congress is considering removing the nation’s air traffic control system from the oversight of the Federal Aviation Administration and putting it in the hands of a private organization. It’s a bad idea for many reasons, but one of the most compelling arguments against it is the substantial cost to airline travelers.

A new study released today by Delta Air Lines makes it clear that travelers would be on the hook if the U.S. goes to a model that funds a private ATC organization through “user fees” rather than the current model which funds the FAA through a combination of airline taxes and appropriations determined by the U.S. Congress.

The study — a compilation of data from various independent reports — reviewed the ATC fees associated with a privatized model in Canada and the United Kingdom and found that after the first six years of privatization, Canada saw an additional 59% increase on ATC-related fees. In the United Kingdom, ATC fees rose 30%. Also, in Canada the average ATC-related fee on the price of each airline ticket increased by 80% over the six years immediately following privatization, despite a decline in the total number of flights operated in Canada.

Ironically, supporters of privatizing air traffic control hold up Canada as the model of what they want to achieve. Why would we assume that anything different would occur with a privatized air traffic organization in the U.S. when it comes to the cost to the traveling public?

Using those rates, we should expect ATC costs in the U.S. to increase by at least 20 to 29% by 2022 under a privatized model, given the much larger overall volume of the U.S. airspace, airports and aircraft transiting the airspace. These costs would end up being passed on to the consumer.

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Then there are taxes. The current U.S. system is more cost-effective for taxpayers than any privatized alternative. Privatization supporters say that shifting the funding for air traffic operations to a private group will lessen the burden on taxpayers. But in practice, it has never worked that way. In 2014, the government of Ontario, Canada, approved a plan to increase the aviation fuel tax 148% by 2017. With about 20% of U.S. ticket prices being made up by taxes, the last thing the traveling public needs is an additional tax burden.

While the FAA has faced criticism about the pace with which it is modernizing today’s airspace and not achieving the cost savings and operational efficiencies promised, the facts are that NextGen airt traffic control was never designed to be an over-night, flip-of-the-switch panacea, but it is working.

The FAA, in collaboration with industry stakeholders, is making solid progress introducing new systems and improving the performance of the U.S. air traffic control (ATC) system. New operational capabilities are being introduced systematically as part of the NextGen program, which is driving the evolution of U.S. airspace into a more modern and reliable system. Those efforts are the result of a decade-long collaboration among the FAA, airlines, airports, labor unions and other industry stakeholders.

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For example, at a National Business Aviation Association meeting in November 2015, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta shared that the implementation of new NextGen operational capabilities has already yielded $1.6 billion in benefits to system users, including travelers, with another $11.4 billion expected over the next 15 years. The success of NextGen improvements at major hubs is well documented, with progress being made in places like Atlanta, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Denver, New York and Seattle. This success comes in addition to the FAA succeeding in its core mission of making the U.S. airspace the safest in the world.

It just doesn’t make sense to remove the system responsible for the safe operation of our skies from the safety oversight of the FAA.

The FAA is the gold standard against which every other nation’s airspace is measured. Do we have more work to do to improve the efficiency of our nation’s airspace? Yes. Is privatizing the answer? No.

This decision is one of the most important that Congress will make for the flying public in 2016. Continuing down the path we’re on with implementing NextGen capabilities, instead of uprooting them, is where our collective focus as an industry and as a nation should remain.

Captain Steve Dickson is senior vice president of flight operations for Delta Air Lines.

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