"Steven P. McNicoll" writes:

Start with a decent spec for air to air datalink and once pilots
can "see" other traffic, they can supply their own separation.
Competition is now between the vendors of radios that provide this
service.

I don't see any free market competition among providers of ATC services
there. It appears to me you've eliminated the provision of ATC services!
Who then is responsible for separation?

The pilots of course. They've always had the responsibility for the
aircraft, technology just now allows us to give them the information
needed to also have the ability to make their own decisions instead of
handing that job over to someone on the ground.

Sequencing is a little harder but not much. The easy way out is to
say that it's still done by people on the ground talking on radios and
the competition is simply that which comes from bidding on the
contract to execute this service for the various airports that need
it.

But then there'd be no free market competition among providers of ATC
services.

Right, the only competition is in the bidding process for the various
contracts to provide approach services at those airports that think
they need them. That's why I went on to describe what I think is a
better system; one that does away with the need and again puts
responsibility with the pilots, where it belongs.

The point I'd hoped to make was not my particular ideas of how to make
a better system for air traffic (though I'm happy to talk about that
too). My point is that the monopoly situation that we currently have
with ATC is a result of the particular design that came to be for good
reasons given the technology at hand. However, technology has changed
so much since the 40's (even though our planes haven't) that it seems
worth reconsidering the fundamentals, not just trying to push ahead
with the same old thing. The need for a monopoloy is not a given.

-Dave