Transportation secretary and acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy told multiple interviewers last week that privatization of air traffic control is off the table in the current administration’s term. Instead Duffy said his department’s focus will be on improving infrastructure and technology at the FAA and hiring additional air traffic controllers. “I could spend my time the next three and a half years fighting over privatization. I’m not going to do that,” the Hill quoted him as saying in a TV interview on NewsNation.
In another interview on CNBC , Duffy said he “was not wading in” to the issue. “If the Congress wants to consider that after we’re done and I’m long gone, so be it.” Duffy instead appears focused on spending the $12.5 billion Congress approved for ATC modernization, which includes a major effort to hire more controllers. The FAA is short about 3,000 controllers and understaffing has been implicated in a series of high-profile incidents, including the fatal collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and a regional jet at Reagan National Airport last January that killed 67 people. The money will also be used to replace radars and upgrade communications and computer systems in ATC facilities.
The Hill said Reuters obtained Duffy’s written testimony for an appearance with the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in which he says the goal is total replacement of the ATC system and calling the $12.5 billion a “down payment to implement our state-of-the-art design.”
Ummm….what about the person who only a few months ago reveled that long and complex amount of work on so much of the system that would be done by 2028? Where did he and his promises go??? Business as usual, new hitter stepping up to the plate.
Let’s assume that a modest in-situ “modernization” of the ATC system is possible. How long will it take to design, test, and deploy nationwide a seamless, backward-compatible, phased implementation in parallel with the existing system? I spent a decade one year working with LocMart contractors on a relatively minor “computerization” project in DC. They were sharp folks and trying their best to satisfy the (ever-changing) specs they were given. While the goal was well defined, the implementation details were a constantly moving target. None of the SMEs that started on the project lasted long enough to see anything resembling it implemented.
Roger is right. New hitter, new whiff. Lather, rinse, repeat…
Duffy isn’t settling the privatization debate, he’s sidestepping it. This has me looking behind my back.
Essentially, Duffy is just kicking the can down the road.
And Aviatrexx, what you spell out is exactly right. No way in the world they could even have the design of all that’s promised ready, and that’s without all the later adjustments, etc that will be forthcoming and have to be redetermined, anywhere near ’28 or even his 4 year tenure. Someone needs to speak up with knowledge of how this works, and a lot of it is necessary , and tell the truth. But, they better get with the program. With more runways and more controllers, and that’s a long term project, the system actually works pretty good now. Our AF (Airways Facilities) folks do a good job of keeping it patched together and working, unless they get fired. Getting hiring fired up like it was right after the strike is a hurry up necessity. It is a logistical mess. But what is needed in training is a very well known, and how to do it. It needs its own “general” to one man or one woman the show and say how, be given the money, and get on with it. Many different ideas of how, but grab one and make it happen. Train hard, screen hard, and accept the washouts. But this is a very unique career field, intelligence doesn’t necessarily count, but at the end you should have candidates that can succeed in the more difficult location.
I agree. Roger is right about the promises and hiring. Aviatrexx is right about the tech drag. I see the training mess. New hires will be on old gear, the new system is nowhere in sight. Politics, logistics, and tech all pulling apart. If FAA cannot line that up, modernization is dead before it starts. (Slow Wednesday afternoon)
You’re exactly right. But extreme exaggeration and hyper-amplification of all topics is and always has been the hallmark of this administration. Which by now isn’t surprising. But what is surprising is the number of people who swallow it whole. Tribalism at its best (worst).
I don’t know how all this will eventually work out, but I’m pretty sure that, before it’s done, we pilots will be buying yet another fancy electronic device to festoon our control panels and drain our wallets!