A coalition of aviation groups, including the National Association of State Aviation Officials, wrote leaders of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees to reassert the vital role that contract air traffic control towers play in improving safety and saving taxpayer dollars. In a letter sent today, the aviation groups, which included the U.S. Contract Tower Association (USCTA), made a simple request that language be included in a FAA appropriations bill to ensure contact towers can continue to operate without interruption.
“The FAA Contract Tower Program has provided cost-effective and essential air traffic safety services for over three decades,” wrote USCTA Executive Director J. Spencer Dickerson and the leaders of eight other aviation groups. “Together these 254 towers handle approximately 28 percent of all air traffic control tower (ATCT) aircraft operations in the U.S. but only account for about 14 percent of FAA’s overall budget allotted to ATCT tower operations,” the letter continued. “More importantly, the safety and efficiency record of the FAA Contract Tower Program has been validated numerous times by the DOT Inspector General, as well as by FAA safety audits.”
There are numerous benefits of the Contract Tower Program, a successful 36-year partnership of government and the aviation industry. Among other benefits, contract towers:
Save taxpayers approximately $200 million each year;
Enhance aviation safety at airports that otherwise would not have a control tower;
Help airports in retaining and developing commercial air service and general aviation;
Connect smaller and rural airports to the national air transportation system;
Provide significant support for military readiness and national security operations (47 percent of all military operations at civilian airports in the United States occur at FAA contract towers); and
Play an essential role in relief and recovery efforts during and after hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters in the United States.
As the House and Senate Appropriations Committees work on an FAA appropriations bill that will set the agency’s funding for FY 2019, the letter requests language ensuring that the contract towers are fully funded at $172 million. That proposal, which has strong bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress, simply ensures contract towers are fully funded from existing accounts and does not require an additional appropriation of limited taxpayer dollars.
The letter was sent today to the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and the respective Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Subcommittees. Thanks to the efforts of these leaders, the program has enjoyed strong bipartisan support and funding in previous fiscal years.
In addition to Dickerson, the letter was signed by leaders of the Regional Airline Association, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the National Business Aviation Administration, the National Air Transportation Association, Airports Council International—North American, the National Association of State Aviation Officials, the Air Traffic Control Association and the Cargo Airline Association.
