Thread: CNN article on problems in Air Travel, as seen by FAA
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Old November 1st 07, 10:20 AM posted to rec.aviation.piloting,rec.travel.air
Larry Dighera
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Default CNN article on problems in Air Travel, as seen by FAA
On Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:40:14 GMT, (John Kulp)
wrote in :

On Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:07:05 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote:

On Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:52:22 GMT, (John Kulp)
wrote in :


a. why is the FAA going ahead with the building of the system?

The current administration wants to privatize virtually every
government service. In the case of the FAA, privatization would
enable FAA to cut their workforce significantly, dodge liability
exposure, and open the federal coffers to by outsourcing to big
business.

How does that work? Why wouldn't the government just be getting out
of the business?


Big business benefits from government privatization. Consider
Halliburton's contract to do the Army's laundry in Iraq[1] for
example.

Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Depends on the contract.


Are you able to cite a single US government privatization that hasn't
resulted in a windfall for private contractors?


Privatization also removes government accountability; private
corporations are not subject to FOIA requests, for example.

Why should the government be accountable for something they are no
longer doing.

Air Traffic Control records should remain accessible to the public, as
they are now, because they may establish legal culpability.

Private corporations are subject to their auditors,
customers, Sarbanes-Oxley and a whole host of other things.

None of which will grant public access to their records as is
currently possible under the FAA.

Consider the November 16, 2000 case of the Mid Air Collision of a USAF
F-16 and a Cessna 172 over Florida. How would the widow of the C-172
pilot have obtained ATC records indicating the controller manning the
position responsible for alerting the pilots to the imminent collision
was unqualified if those records where the sole property of a private
contractor?


b. why are the airlines backing that change?

The airline industry, including the airliner manufacturers, would like
nothing better than to remove congressional FAA budget oversight, and
wrest the balanced governmental allocation of National Airspace System
resources from US citizens, so that they can advance their air carrier
agenda at the expense of other airspace users. Airliner manufacturer,
Boeing, is also in the privatized ATC business.[2]

Why not if they can do it better and cheaper than the government,
which is a virtual sure thing.

ATC is not about cheaper; it's about safer. Currently the US ATC
system is the best in the world. What criteria did you use to reach
your conclusion, that a new, un-tested privatized ATC system will ever
end up as good, let alone better than the current system? Or is that
just your unsubstantiated guess?

Also consider, what if the private contractor who wins the NextGen
competitive bid ATC contract is an Iranian firm (you know, like the
Dubai ports scandal)? Do you feel that it would be appropriate for a
foreign power to control the US skies?