US: Trump proposes privatisation of air traffic control

President Donald Trump has proposed privatising the US air traffic control system as part of his attempt to unleash $1tn in public and private infrastructure spending that he pledged during the campaign. Trump said his administration would push to modernise the antiquated system in an effort to reduce the cost of airline travel and to cut the amount of time passengers lose because of delays on runaways and in the skies. “We’re proposing to take American air travel into the future, finally,” Trump said. “We’ll launch this American travel revolution by modernising this outdated system of air traffic control.” US presidents have had a chequered history in tackling the domestic air traffic control system. Ronald Reagan sacked striking air traffic controllers in 1981 in a move that has since been seen as severely weakening American labour unions. Several presidents have tried to overhaul the system since, including Democrat Bill Clinton, who failed to turn the system into a public corporation. Under Trump’s proposal, air traffic control systems would rely on GPS technology instead of the decades-old radar and ground-based systems that are commonly blamed for the long delays that have become synonymous with US air travel. “At a time when every passenger has GPS technology in their pockets, our air traffic control system still runs on radar,” said Trump, before adding that dozens of countries, including Canada, had made similar changes with “terrific results”. The air traffic plan would create a new air traffic control organisation separate from the Federal Aviation Administration. The US is one of the few industrial nations that still has a government agency provide air traffic control. Among the arguments for separating the function is the view that safety regulation and technology management do not sit well in one institution.<br/>