Aviation debate heats up as carriers pan ‘dysfunctional' FAA

The simmering debate over whether to put US air-traffic control under a nonprofit corporation burst into the open as an airline trade group accused the government of being “hopelessly dysfunctional” in a letter to a senior senator. Airlines for America accused the FAA of overstating its progress in modernising the current flight-monitoring system and said the agency had repeatedly bungled technology programs. The system “is broken beyond repair within the constraints of government,” said the Airlines for America’s letter to Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who is chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The letter was obtained by Bloomberg News ahead of a congressional hearing Wednesday on the future of air-traffic control. The trade group’s missive represented a significant escalation in the rhetoric over a controversial proposal endorsed by President Donald Trump to spin off the FAA’s air-traffic operations into a nonprofit.<br/>