Air traffic control privatization is a dead issue, but it predictably raises its head from time to time when the going gets rough. The perfect storm of chronic staff shortages and the government shutdown prompted a new response from the administration. The nationwide throttling of traffic to try to match controller attendance at ATC facilities was a novel approach to the increase in sick calls at the towers and TRACONs, but it really didn’t last long enough to measure its success or failure. Now we’re back to normal which, in most cases, means facilities are understaffed by 20% or more.
The calls for privatization are coming mostly from the mainstream media this time. They argue, with some authority, that privatized ATC would be shutdown-proof and that other countries that have some form of arm’s-length administration of their airspace management don’t experience such things. But that’s because other countries don’t seem to shut down their governments, so it’s kind of a red herring.
As usual, Canada is trotted out as an example for the U.S. to follow, and that has its merits. One of the knocks against privatization put forward by the groups that most staunchly oppose the concept, which means GA groups, is that it necessarily requires the implementation of “user fees” for funding. In Canada, that means a fluctuating annual fee for aircraft of about $50 USD. Corporate aircraft and airliners who use the system are charged various user fees depending on the airports they use and routes they take.
The various editorials boosting the Canadianization of ATC in the U.S. are correct in that there is no widespread discontent. The airspace costs are negligible for most private aircraft and manageable for those that really use the system. They are also correct that the arm’s-length systems like Canada’s (you’ll note I’m not calling them private because they aren’t, really) do have the ability to raise their own money to fund modernization and system improvements, so they seem to move at light speed compared to the FAA in embracing the latest tech.
But what they fail to mention is that the number-one issue plaguing the system in the U.S., the staffing shortfall, is also a major factor in Canada and around the world. For whatever reason, young people just don’t seem to be attracted to the trade and recruiting is a challenge. There is plenty of money available to hire new controllers in Canada but not enough applicants to keep the pipeline full. At the same time the shutdown was causing issues in the Lower 48, major facilities in Canada were also throttling traffic because of staff shortages.
Nav Canada may have broken ATC free of Transport Canada but it did not get away from the powerful unions that play a major role in the administration of the system. Those well-entrenched unions were a major factor in the Canadian government wanting to be rid of the ATC role, and their hold on it manifests mostly on long weekends. Accumulated time-off provisions from the generous contracts negotiated before the creation of Nav Canada tend to be exercised on long weekends, and the result is that GA access to major airports and busy airspace is banned or curtailed. While it’s relatively new in the U.S., GA in Canada has been dealing with it for years.
So while Nav Canada, which is a not-for-profit corporation that has the federal government as a major player (three of 15 seats on the board of directors), has its problems, they’re not the reason privatization is a nonstarter in the U.S., especially now.
While federal politicians can be generous with other people’s (the taxpayers’) money, and swayed one way or another on a variety of policy and regulatory issues, there is one thing they are unanimous about. They are very stingy with giving up any power, and what this latest go round with the shutdown showed is that there is immense power in the manipulation of air travel. There was never any chance that air traffic disruptions wouldn’t be settled before the holiday travel season. It was just a question of who was willing to blink.
This has happened before, but ATC disruptions were collateral damage to the larger issues at hand. In this fracas, air travel woes became the prime focus of the shutdown debate and there is just no way politicians are going to give up that kind of power lever for the greater good.
Instead, you’ll see continued refinement of the use of air travel whenever things get fractious in the halls of power. And among those thinking about how the future will unfold is the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. The union was front and center in all the news conferences and media opportunities through the shutdown and also held a few of its own just to assert its independence and, dare we say it, authority over the process.
Hand all that over to some bland board of directors at arm’s length from the political to and fro? Not a chance.
The functional equivalent to privatizing ATC would be privatizing all the major roads and the traffic cops in the country. Then letting shipping companies take seats on the board. See any problems with putting foxes in charge of the henhouse?
Safety doesn’t last long in the face of conflicts of interest. That’s why ATC is a government function, to remove the conflict of interest. Remember that time the FAA let Boeing run its own henhouse? Turns out letting a team on the field provide their own referees has some nasty side effects…..
Part of the problem with Boeing is that after the engineers strike in 2000, management started to replace retiring engineers who represented the FAA, with management doing the job. THAT’S why Boeing fell apart. I was there in engineering at the time. We all saw what was coming at Boeing, starting around 2005.
ATC jobs are highly-skilled and often stressful, where lives are at stake every day. Neurosurgery is too, but not all day long for six days a week, and it pays a LOT more, even though their pool of patients is far smaller than air travelers.
What would happen if ATC services were stripped from the FAA budget and it became a separate federal budget line-item? Would all those congress-critters who depend on DCA/IAD/BWI to commute back to their districts see that ATC is a critical national resource, and fund it appropriately?
I’m not talking about privatizing anything, just getting the most critical FAA function out from under its lead-blanket bureaucracy, like NASA is.
“There was never any chance that air traffic disruptions wouldn’t be settled before the holiday travel season.”
All the players involved in the recent shutdown seemed bound and determined to keep going until getting what they wanted. Until the airlines were affected, then it was quickly resolved.
One of the advocacy groups pushing hard to end the shutdown was Airlines for America. Their new CEO, Chris Sununu, was a long time governor of New Hampshire, stepping down earlier this year.
In what seems too coincidental to be coincidence, two of the senators that switched their votes at the last moment were both from New Hampshire.
It appears Airlines for America did well in choosing their new CEO.
Without a clear strategy regarding the modernization, standardization, competent manufacturing, and funding (meaning legitimate bidding without built in cost and production overruns) of new hardware for ATC, there is no way to get out of a 20%+ deficit of qualified controllers. It is clear that few citizens and politicians care about controller mental and physical health. As long as no aircraft are trading paint, controllers work their assigned 60+ hour work week because we have normalized it for decades. The aviation community rightly abhors and preach against normalization of deviancy in the cockpit, but it is permissible in the “cab” keeping manned and unmanned aircraft separated. Modern equipment will go a long way in relieving controller stress, burnout, and help facilitate more accurate projections of future staffing needs. It would help make being a controller a sought after career vs a job that will potentially kill you well before 65 because of accumulated physical and mental stress suffered over decades.
Thank you, Russ, for finally stating the reality of the situation. The two political parties crave power and control of ATC gives them a great wedge against the other side when things get nasty. Giving that up is not likely to happen. Considering that the government is about to launch into an upgrade of the ATC system, which will cost a zillion dollars, there is no way they would give that over to a private corporation who would want to run their “own show” but keep the public funds flowing under their control. Too many congress critters will want to have some of those funds flowing into their districts to keep the votes coming. What is really needed is a way to prohibit or prevent the two parties from shutting down the government every time a new budget is in the works. But again, that ain’t likely to happen either.
Consider this, as long as ATC/FAA is under government control those in power can shut it down any time for cause or not. Having that kind of power over the nation’s major transportation system is the controlling issue behind the current situation, and the government is not going to give that up. However it is instructive to consider the level of power wielded by unions in countries such as Australia and France, and apply that to ATC. Fortunately we saw what Reagan did and it is a lesson essential unions would do well to remember.
Last I knew, and it’s been awhile since I was plugged in to Nav Canada’s operation, the controllers could be required to work split shifts. As in, come in and work 7-10 am and come back and work 2-7 pm. If that’s still the case, that would certainly get new hires to reconsider. Here in the US, it’s generally the large hubs that are working the 6-day weeks on a regular basis. Why the FAA would rather pay overtime than hire more controllers is beyond my pay grade, but it’s been that way since the PATCO strike of 1981.