Small-Town America Skittish about Privatizing Nation’s Air Traffic Control
April 23, 2017
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    Small-town aviation, farm and business interests fear the president’s plan to create the nongovernment body and likely finance it with user fees could benefit big city airports and commercial airlines but create economic stress on remote communities.


    Moore said he’s concerned previously proposed takeoff and landing fees of $100 per trip could be resurrected, adding that “some of our planes do 60 to 100 takeoffs and landings a day when they’re dusting crops.”




    There were few financial details, but the Trump administration said the change is needed to save money and bring the system into the 21st century, making it “more efficient and innovative while maintaining safety.”

    The FAA would continue its role of developing and enforcing aviation safety standards, but fewer federal dollars would be needed to operate the agency — dollars that Trump said he needs to build up the nation’s military and combat illegal immigration.

    In addition, the president has proposed eliminating the 40-year-old, $283 million-a-year subsidy for commercial airlines to serve smaller markets.


    Shilad said she’s concerned private management could be dominated by the major airlines, which support the president’s plan as necessary to free both the operation and funding of the air traffic system from the uncertainty and squabbling of Washington politics.

    She said the big airlines could concentrate air traffic improvements at major airports and cut back on service to small-town airports, with their fewer flights and passengers. She also warned of possible higher-cost flights to and from smaller airports as well as increased user fees for crop dusters.

    That, in turn, her organization said in a letter to congressional leaders, would bring economic grief to farmers, businesses and less-populated states that rely on general aviation airports for shipping, crop dusting, fighting grass and woodland fires, and connecting flights to major airports.




    Republican Congressman Bill Shuster, from western Pennsylvania, unsuccessfully sponsored legislation last year to turn over the air traffic control system to a private, nonprofit entity that would be overseen by a 13-member board, including aviation experts and airline representatives.

    He said his bill provided that no special aviation interest would have a majority on the board and that small-town airports did not need to worry about being marginalized.




    Despite Shuster’s assurances, locations with smaller airports around the country are clearly concerned. In a letter last month to congressional leaders, 115 mayors in small towns such as Terre Haute, Indiana, called the privatization plan “risky.”



    Contact CNHI Washington, D.C., reporter Kery Murakami