Money does not necessarily guarantee safety or efficiency, and Europe is trying to reduce airline industry costs by eliminating national boundaries and bureaucracy in
air-traffic control. Iceland's 2010 volcanic eruption, spewing ash into the sky, demonstrated haphazard rules and need for coordination.
delayed for up to around 2-and-a-half hours after the new
air-traffic controlBen Chandler, who represents the Lexington, Ky., area, where Comair Flight 5191 crashed last month, is calling for an inquiry into Federal Aviation Administration
air-traffic control staffing policies.
The idea behind corporatization is this: The FAA has more responsibility than it can handle, and
air-traffic control is an operational system that should be run like a business, not like a bureaucracy.
The budget is expected to include a proposal to privatize the
air-traffic control system and make it wholly user-fee funded, to end subsidies for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and to sell off at least one of the five regional power marketing authorities - holding companies of dams and other electrical power plants - which would probably generate several billion dollars.
The Air Transport Association is campaigning for funding for a modernized
air-traffic control system.
WHEN THEY COME TO THE FAA'S OTHER principal role--operating the
air-traffic control system--the authors finally reach solid ground.