Steven P. McNicoll wrote:
"Matthew S. Whiting" wrote in message
...

Because most private companies that perform functions similar to
governmental agencies are more efficient.



Sure, susccessful private companies are forced by competition to be more
efficient or fail. But you can't have competition in ATC.

Sure you can. Not the head-to-head competition that exists in consumer
goods markets, but certainly competition akin to what exists in the
telecom market and other such markets. Also, the gummint could retain
ownership of ATC, but hold a competition every 4-5 years for who gets to
operate ATC for the next 4-5 years. Not real privatization, but a
hybrid that gets closer.

Don't get me wrong, as I said at the start, I am not advocating
privatization of ATC. I'm not sure that deregulation of the telecom
industry has been a win for the consumer and I'm not sure privatization
of ATC would be any better.


I think new technology would
be adopted faster and with less bureaucracy.



Why?

First a disclaimer, I'm not an expert when it comes to the federal
contracting process, but my employer does do a fair amount of government
contract work and I've had a passing acquaintance with it. It is MUCH
more expensive to work with any government agency that with almost any
private company, and I'm talking here about national research labs,
military labs, and some federal agencies such as NASA, but not, to my
knowledge, the FAA ... never worked with them as far as I know. The
requirements for bidding, accounting, etc. are just insane. The only
private company that even comes close to being as tough to work with is
Big Blue.

We just landed a contract with a large government agency working jointly
with IBM. It took TWO YEARS to get the contract! We've done much more
complicated work for much more money with other private companies and
universities under contracts that took two months to negotiate and get
approved.


I think controller
performance would be rewarded more effectively.



There used to be rewards for superior controller performance, but no longer.

The would exist in spades in most private companies. And not just
rewards for good performance, but termination for poor performance.


Last I knew, most civil
service jobs still had a lot of focus on seniority, more like a union
workforce in the private sector than a professional workforce in the
private sector.



About all seniority does today in ATC is select prime time leave.



No way to know for sure unless it happens, but I'd bet money on greater
efficiency.



Why should that be the case in the US? It hasn't happened anywhere else.

Few other countries have embraced capitalism as thoroughly as the US.
I'm not familiar with private ATC in the rest of the world, so I can't
comment. What countries are you talking about? Canada? England? Are
they really completely private or hybrids?


Matt