AviationBanter - View Single Post - CNN article on problems in Air Travel, as seen by FAA

**Rick Blaine** · September 12th 07, 10:23 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting,rec.travel.air

(John Kulp) wrote:

"The guys who fly around in private jets" make up about 40 percent of
the air traffic in the Northeast, he said. "One would think it's not just
airlines that would be asked to reduce capacity," he said.

Is this number correct?

Yes, and they don't pay anywhere near their fair share of fees either.

Well that's certainly a matter for debate...

The vast majority of gen av traffic would operate just fine without ATC at all.
With the exception of a few airports that are commercial hubs, and a couple like
Teterboro that attract a bunch of CEO flights.

What drives all those ATC costs are commercial aircraft that a) all want to land
at the same time, and b) have cockpit equipment that was designed 40 years ago,
thus they have to have ATC around.

Most GA aircraft have modern cockpits fully capable of detecting traffic
conflicts, rerouting for weather and operate out of airports that are lucky to
see more than a couple of dozen flights a day.

This is really an argument over who created the problem and who gets to pay to
solve it. GA didn't create the problem and shouldn't be force to bail the
airlines or the government out.

--
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