... and among the key points brought up in the discussion is the question, “Will money be diverted from airport infrastructure investment to pay for NextGen?” Good question, asked by National Air Transportation Association president James Coyne.
At a time when Congress (finally) may be thinking about fiscal accountability – but not likely, in reality – Coyne raises a good point, welcomed by airports. We’ve been living through three years of uncertainty about system and infrastructure funding.
The fun thing about recent Capitol Hill discussions regarding FAA/system reauthorization has been the fact that the conversation has turned away from it being a “user fee” discussion to the concept that Congresspeople from across the spectrum have been promoting reauthorization as a “jobs bill”. Awesome. It is a jobs bill, as well as one that keeps the system running and updates ATC … though the past discussion about jobs has been about FedEx and UPS – union versus non-union. (We all know where Mr. Obama stands on this issue.)
Comments Steve Brown, a man who has lived and breathed the industry in a career associated with aviation and the association circuit and now with NBAA, “Pursuing NextGen and airport improvement really does create jobs. We have a good story to tell.”
As Coyne points out, modernization of the air traffic control system “is something that has lurched over the industry for the past 15 years.” Actually, much longer. We keep beating the drum; our neighbors to the north (Canada) did something about it in the ‘90s, and created NavCanada. They also dramatically downsized Transport Canada (our FAA) and eased that funding issue. One doesn’t hear a lot of drum beating from the north about either initiative.
But then, what do I know? I’m just a very interested observer who has been watching this stuff for a very long time and who thinks that change is a good thing. Let’s unleash the system – privatize ATC (union or non-union) and let the private sector modernize it, which I suspect they are chomping at the bit to get the opportunity to do; let airports operate more like businesses (look at Vancouver, Calgary) and let them charge fees that make sense for their local markets; and get TSA out of the way – oh, that’s probably a different discussion.
Thanks for reading. jfi