UNITED STATES — The recent government shutdown brought flight reductions and several panicked passengers.
While air travel is getting back on track, some aviation experts are offering a solution that could prevent those scenes from happening again.
"Today, about 95 countries get their air traffic service from an air traffic control utility that is funded by user fees," Robert Poole, Director of Public Policy with the Reason Foundation, said. "It is not a part of a government budget."
Poole also has decades of aviation experience and has watched the idea of privatizing United States aviation fail. Now, he thinks the idea could be revived again.
"It's really a disaster to have the air traffic system be a part of the government budget as long as Congress has the ability to do what they did," he said.
U.S. aviation is currently funded through a tax that passengers pay, along with a gas tax that pilots and commercial planes pay. All of that generates about $20 million for the system.
Under privatization, the industry would be self-sufficient, with airlines and business jets paying user fees based on the gross weight of the plane, along with the distance flown.
"People can see that the system is now broken," Poole said. "Even though it will start back up with the more normal funding, it will be short of controllers."
Poole said the move could help with outdated equipment and the air traffic controller shortage. Jim Coon, the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Advocacy with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said help for that is already on the way.
"We need to move forward on modernizing and put this old, tired effort to privatize to rest," Coon said.
Coon said Congress is already providing $12.5 billion to modernize the system and train more air traffic controllers.
It may take time to see changes, but Coon said people shouldn't rush to privatize American aviation just yet.
"People point to other countries that have privatized," he said. "They have all of the same problems. They have staffing issues, funding issues, so it's really not that panacea that everyone thinks that it is."
Coon also said going private could affect funding for small, regional airports.
For Poole, now is the time to discuss privatization as the Federal Aviation Administration needs to be reauthorized in three years, and the effects of the recent government shutdown are fresh in people's minds.
"This is not a long-term tenable solution," Poole said. "We really need to fix it and do better."
