The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) President\nand CEO Mark Baker returned to Capitol Hill to express AOPA’s support for\nmodernizing the nation’s air traffic control system without privatizing it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baker told members of the Senate Aviation and Space\nsubcommittee on Sept. 24 and the House Subcommittee on Aviation on Sept. 26\nthat private control of an air traffic management system that handles more than\n44,000 flights a day would do nothing to reduce delays, lower ticket prices, or\nspeed up modernization. He said it also could have devastating consequences to\nsmall and rural airports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs you know, the past two years were spent dealing with a\nproposal calling for the privatization of our ATC system,\u201d Baker told the\nsubcommittee on Tuesday during the hearing held to consider air traffic control\nimprovements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to speak for others here today, and I could be\nwrong, but I don\u2019t believe anyone wants to revisit the issue that has and will\ncontinue to divide us,\u201d Baker said. \u201cWe have seen where ATC privatization\nhasn\u2019t worked well for general aviation in other countries and we don\u2019t want to\ngo down that path.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Subcommittee on\nAviation and Space, wants to \u201creset\u201d the conversation on ATC reform and not\n“rehash old fights.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to make clear from the start that, while I’m sure\nthe air traffic control reform efforts of previous Congresses are on the minds\nof all of our witnesses today, that’s not what this hearing is about,”\nCruz said in his opening remarks. “While those efforts and the members who\nengaged in them\u2014including the ranking member of this subcommittee\u2014showed bold\nleadership in challenging the status quo, we are not here today to rehash old\nfights. The purpose of the hearing to examine the current landscape, to discuss\nwhat works and what doesn’t, and what you, the stakeholders, like and don’t\nlike, and to open a new avenue for dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baker told the subcommittee that AOPA shares a desire to\nimprove efficiency and reduce cost, and that \u201cwe are ready and willing to work\nwith all industry stakeholders and Congress to advance the consensus needed to\nimprove our current system.\u201d As part of AOPA\u2019s efforts to support ATC\nmodernization, Baker said he has had the privilege of serving on the FAA\u2019s\nNextGen Advisory Committee, commonly referred to as the NAC, for nearly six\nyears, and it is \u201cone of the best government-industry collaborative efforts\nthat I am aware of or have been associated with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baker also noted that the primary NextGen challenges that\nremain are the need for GA operators to equip their fleets with Automatic\nDependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out technology, controller training on new\nsystems and procedures, and continued flight path routing procedure development\n(commonly referred to as Performance Based Navigation). In response to a\nquestion from Senator John Thune (R- S.D.) on the ADS-B Out 2020 mandate, Baker\nsaid he would urge the subcommittee to encourage the FAA to provide another\nround of rebates that would further spur the GA equipage rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AOPA also supports bipartisan legislation, the Aviation\nFunding Stability Act of 2019 (S.762) introduced by Senator Jerry Moran\n(R-Kan.) and co-sponsored by Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz). The bill would\ninsulate the FAA from any negative impacts of future government shutdowns. A\ncompanion bill (H.R.1108) was introduced in the House by Transportation and\nInfrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baker also took the opportunity to remind senators that\naviation remains a workforce engine that offers vast potential to create jobs\nfor the next generation of pilots, controllers, and technicians. He called on\nlawmakers to fully fund the aviation workforce development programs created in\nthe 2018 FAA reauthorization act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs the Committee is aware, in order to meet bold\nchallenges, we need bold initiatives. Recognizing this, I am hopeful the\nCommittee will work with Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and others to establish\na National Center for the Advancement of Aviation,\u201d Baker said. \u201cWe strongly\nbelieve standing up such a center will facilitate cooperation, collaboration,\nand coordination across all sectors of aviation\u2014civil, commercial, and\nmilitary\u2014and which is so desperately needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to AOPA and Airlines for America, the Air Line\nPilots Association, National Air Traffic Controllers Association, and National\nBusiness Aviation Association also testified.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) President and CEO Mark Baker returned to Capitol Hill to express AOPA’s support for modernizing the nation’s air traffic control system without privatizing it. Baker told members of the Senate Aviation and Space subcommittee on Sept. 24 and the House Subcommittee on Aviation on Sept. 26 that private […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13897,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13896\/revisions\/13897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}