Trump Wants To Modernize Air Travel By Turning Over Control To the Big Airlines (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Today, President Donald Trump endorsed a plan to hand over oversight of the nation's airspace to a non-profit corporation that will likely be largely controlled by the major airlines. Republicans argue that privatizing air traffic control will help save money and fast track important technological upgrades. But Democrats and consumer groups criticize that plan as a corporate giveaway that will inevitably harm passengers. The air traffic reform proposal, which fell short in Congress last year, would transfer oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to a government-sanctioned, independent entity that would be made up of appointees from industry stakeholders. The effort picked up steam when the union representing air traffic controllers endorsed the plan, citing years of understaffing by the FAA. Some passengers may balk at the idea of handing over day-to-day management of the nation's highly complex air traffic control system to the same companies that rack up tens of thousands of customer complaints a year, and occasionally physically assault or drag passengers off their planes. But the Trump administration argues this is the only way to modernize a system that still runs on technology that's been around since World War II. The FAA is already years into a technology upgrade known as NextGen, which involves moving from the current system based on radar and voice communications to one based on satellite navigation and digital communications. The FAA wants to use GPS technology to shorten routes, save time and fuel, and reduce traffic delays by increasing capacity.

Comments

Privatization is the same as oligarchization

[The Real Dr John]

This is about rich people making even more money, not about anything else. I wish people would stop the nonsense about greater efficiency. It always ends up badly for regular people, just ask the people in Flint Michigan about their water.

The privatization fetish

[AlanObject]

Oh, yeah. I really want my safety to be weighed against someone's profit margin in a spreadsheet somewhere.

Government is not a business. It should not be run like a business. People who think it should be should not be allowed anywhere near a decision making office in government.

Re:Fox in the Hen House

[LunaticTippy]

The foxes don't care about any particular hens, only the fact that there are hens to eat. Smart businessfoxes would keep a large population of overfed, misinformed hens and kill off a percentage around the edges of hen society, maybe by taking away their health care, disability, and food stamps.

Re:Next Step

[naubol]

Yes, because large corporations just LOVE losing $2.5 million dollars every time a plane crashes.

That's exactly right, corporations do not like losing money. So, it will be a cold calculation of how many dollars it saves not to have a crash and how many dollars it saves not to properly operate ATC. Maybe market forces mean we end up having better service with less loss of life, maybe it means something else. If the optimal profit result ends up being letting a few hundred more people die each year, guess thats what'll happen. Can't wait to find out...

Re:Next Step

[Joosy]

That's exactly right, corporations do not like losing money. So, it will be a cold calculation of how many dollars it saves not to have a crash

Corporations don't "like" anything ... they're not people. (This isn't Mitt Romney posting, is it?)

The ones making the decisions of how much to spend on security have their own self-interest at heart. So ...

1. CEO cuts spending on safety
2. Short term profit rises
3. Stock skyrockets
4. CEO is hailed as turn around specialist
5. CEO retires, pocketing millions
6. Because of deferred maintenance (see #1), planes have more accidents
7. CEO, basking in retirement, sees start of televised report about plane crashes. Lifts remote. Changes channel.