• AOPA Prez Testifies Against ATC Privatization

    From Larry Dighera@21:1/5 to All on Wed Oct 2 08:04:36 2019
    https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/aopa-prez-testifies-against-atc-privatization/

    AOPA Prez Testifies Against ATC Privatization
    Marc CookOctober 1, 20190

    Last week, AOPA President Mark Baker appeared before the Senate
    Aviation and Space subcommittee to advocate against privatizing air
    traffic control. Baker told the committee that privatizing ATC would
    not reduce delays or speed up modernization, plus it could adversely
    affect smaller airports.

    “As you know, the past two years were spent dealing with a proposal
    calling for the privatization of our ATC system,” Baker told the
    subcommittee. “I don’t want to speak for others here today, and I
    could be wrong, but I don’t believe anyone wants to revisit the issue
    that has and will continue to divide us. We have seen where ATC
    privatization hasn’t worked well for general aviation in other
    countries and we don’t want to go down that path.”

    For his part, chairman of the committee, Sen. Ted Cruz, said, “I want
    to make clear from the start that, while I’m sure the air traffic
    control reform efforts of previous Congresses are on the minds of all
    of our witnesses today, that’s not what this hearing is about. While
    those efforts and the members who engaged in them—including the
    ranking member of this subcommittee—showed bold leadership in
    challenging the status quo, we are not here today to rehash old
    fights. The purpose of the hearing to examine the current landscape,
    to discuss what works and what doesn’t, and what you, the
    stakeholders, like and don’t like, and to open a new avenue for
    dialogue.”

    AOPA has steadfastly pushed back against privatization while reminding
    the committee that general aviation is a “workforce engine.” To that
    end, Baker testified that the government should fully fund workforce development programs “created in the 2018 FAA reauthorization act.”
    Baker said, “As the Committee is aware, in order to meet bold
    challenges, we need bold initiatives. Recognizing this, I am hopeful
    the Committee will work with Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and others
    to establish a National Center for the Advancement of Aviation. We
    strongly believe standing up such a center will facilitate
    cooperation, collaboration, and coordination across all sectors of aviation—civil, commercial and military—and which is so desperately
    needed.”

    Baker also called on the committee to encourage the FAA to offer
    another round of rebates to help drive the final fence-sitters toward
    ADS-B Out compliance, which is mandated by Jan. 1, 2020. Currently,
    the FAA has filled all the available rebate slots, while the fleet is
    looking to be at much less than full compliance by the deadline. And
    that’s even with avionics shops seeing strong demand for
    installs—demand that outstrips their capacity to complete the jobs by
    year’s end. https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/ads-b-installs-delay-backlog-will-be-worse-next-year/

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