Your Flight Has Been Delayed–And It’s Washington’s Fault!
As the holiday travel rush approaches, air travelers grounded by delays should take a moment to think about why they’re stuck in airports or on the tarmac. There’s a good chance Washington is to blame.
“The air traffic control system in the United States is technologically obsolete,” says Robert W. Poole, Jr., director of transportation studies at Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes Reason.tv. “This model is basically the same model that we have used since the beginning of air travel.”
The technology the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) uses to navigate $200 million jets is less advanced than the GPS technology drivers use to navigate $20,000 cars.
Poole says the system could safely handle more planes if the FAA used modern technology that would provide real-time information about where planes are. But the funding process, overseen by pork-hungry members of Congress, often thwarts technology upgrades.
The only way to get the politics out of our air traffic system is to take the system away from the politicians. Why not let a private corporation manage the skies?
That may sound like a far-out, free-market idea, but Canada doesn’t think so.
Our neighbors to the north often take pride in their lavish government programs, yet they allow a private corporation called Nav Canada to manage their air-traffic control system. Canada’s approach, often called commercialization, has some surprising supporters in the U.S., including Al Gore, who pushed for commercialization when he was Bill Clinton’s vice president.
“Your Flight Has Been Delayed” is written and produced by Ted Balaker. Director of Photography: Alex Manning; Field Producers: Paul Detrick and Hawk Jensen. The host is Nick Gillespie.
Approximately 7.28 minutes. Go to http://reason.tv for downloadable versions.
Duration : 0:7:29
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The private sector …
The private sector would not exist for 2 seconds if it wasn’t for MASSIVE government subsidizes which has be going on since aerospace existence. 60% of Boeing revenue comes from government contracts, after of course WE fund the research. That’s why we have NASA, Pentagon, MIT, DARPA, Purdue, 100s of other taxpayer funded university research centers.
As a Air Traffic …
As a Air Traffic Controller in Canada, I can tell you our equipment is far better then american . I went to university in the States for Aerospace sciend (major ATC) and have seen 1st hand the equipment used in real life. And i still say Nav Canada has way better equipment. We are also a non for profit company , and that was the only way that Transport Canada(federal govt) would let us be a private company .
Wow. Al Gore +1 …
Wow. Al Gore +1 respect point.
That puts him at…. well. Its a triple digit negative number. I lost track past -100
Yes, private ATC is …
Yes, private ATC is all about safety … funny how they ignored the mid-air over Switzerland that was being controlled by a private ATC company.
ATC has put more airplanes in the sky by reducing separation (and strips are basically gone from centers), but those planes need to come down sometime. Where are the runways and gates?
This appears to be a bit old since Carr hasn’t been president of NATCA for about three years.
I’m a radar …
I’m a radar controller at a major TRACON facility in the midwest (not in WI). Today I was vectoring several aircraft to the airport when the city that operates the airport (not the FAA) closed that airport for 25 minutes for snow removal. Six aircraft diverted and several dozen more were delayed due to the ensuing delay program. I wonder how Canada’s private ATC system would have gotten all those planes into the airport and avoided the “ATC Delays”.
True, the private …
True, the private sector does make mistakes. Humans make mistakes. However, it seems as though the private sector is generally more effective, productive and efficient than the government sector. Those private companies may be out there but the whole system is still run by the FAA and those private companies that are operating are very heavily regulated.
@HeadTater There …
@HeadTater There are several privately run (contracted out in an experiment by the FAA) Air Traffic Control Towers in the USA (google Midwest ATC, Serco, and Robinson Aviation). They have operational errors there, too. What’s your point?
@HeadTater It costs …
@HeadTater It costs less because they work a fraction of the traffic US FAA controllers work. NavCanada STILL hasn’t figured out how to get more than 1 airplane on a runway at a time, which is, by a huge margin, the reason for airline delays.
I just now saw on …
I just now saw on ABC that, on the Monday before Thanksgiving, two jets came within 1.7 miles distance and 200ft altitude of colliding outside Denver because of bad info and direction given by an FAA controler.
You don’t trust …
You don’t trust for-profit companies. What about non-profits? How about the government? How much do you trust it? Besides, NavCanada is a private company and it is safer, more efficient and costs less than than the FAA.
Yeah… Al Gore is …
Yeah… Al Gore is a f***-ing right-wing extremist!
Robert Poole has …
Robert Poole has long had an agenda of trying to turn over the responsibility for the safety of the skies in America to the airlines or private industry. I, personally, do not trust “for profit” corporations running Fire Departments, Police Departments, Food Safety Inspection, or Air Traffic Control. Some things are inherently governmental.
Sunspots? What …
Sunspots? What happens when the radar system is gone and a hijacked aircraft turns off its ADSB? Who is going to pay for retrofitting tens of thousands of airplanes with this costly equipment? NavCanda runs a tiny fraction of what the US runs! You cannot compare the two.
Robert Poole is a …
Robert Poole is a neo-con blowhard moron. So radar is 1950s technology? So? So are cars, and highways, and AIRPLANES! Oh wait those are 1900s technology. The Romans used concrete, and guess what we still do, because it works! Sure it would be great do go directly point to point, but there are tens of thousands of others that want to do the same thing. You can only have on airplane ONE airplane on the runway at a time. How exactly does GPS help there? How does GPS resolve wake turbulence, sunspot
Technology can’t …
Technology can’t change the laws of physics. Two aircraft can’t occupy the same space at the same time (or even a few miles behind them thanks to wake turbulence).
When did I say that?
When did I say that?
And I’m sure …
And I’m sure privatization could change that.
Great, more …
Great, more propaganda from the reason foundation. I really hope no one watching this video mistakes it for legitamate information – any REAL industry-insider can see right through it.. It’s pretty clear that the Reason Foundation is more agenda-driven than information-driven.
Mr. Poole should stick to politics and leave the modernization of the National Airspace System to the real experts.
Yawn. This is old, …
Yawn. This is old, tired, boring news regurgitated just in time for the holiday travel season. But the fact is the flying public as a whole doesn’t care enough to demand action and never will. That’s a good thing considering the misinformation spewed from the mouth of Reason. God forbid they should fall for such propaganda. You’re wasting still more money and time Mr. Poole.
very true
very true
Ive been an Air …
Ive been an Air Traffic Controller for 5 years now at a large facility and we dont use strips, and havent since I was first employed. Mr. Poole, your information is outdated. Nice try though. We are talking about monitoring the skies over the sovereign jurisdiction of the United States. That is as inherently governmental as it gets. If you want to shrink government there are many ways do so. Removing Air Traffic Control is not one of them.
The answer is not …
The answer is not privatization and its not about airspace… it’s about the lack of runways. IUS airspace is like driving home at 5pm, Mon-Fri. You get delayed because there are many more cars on the road than normal. You either build more roads or leave at a different time… the US can either build more airports or charge more for early slots. When was the last major airport built here in the US? Denver Intl, 14 years ago!
The state of TEXAS …
The state of TEXAS alone controls more aircraft then all of CANADA.
This Video is all about getting tax payer monies to big corp organization to members that have pretty much retired from FAA jobs to the corp.
So the revolving PR spin that the US ATC system is a failure or is failing. DONT believe the HYPE or this video. THE US STILL HAS THE BEST ATC SYSTEM IN THE WORLD!
Don’t let Wall street dictate anything different to you.
Visit you local airport ATC controller and talk with them.
@sniper6081 …
@sniper6081 Airports aren’t run by the US government . . . they’re all run by airport authorities, or local towns or cities, or private companies. In any case, the federal government doesn’t decide when to build a new runway or new passenger facilities. Air traffic control, despite being “out of date” still deliver aircraft to runways at the maximum rate the runway can accept. New ATC equipment won’t allow runways to accept more than one airplane at a time.
@sniper6081 Up to …
@sniper6081 Up to 12 seconds of lag time causes planes to fly past their destination by 150 miles? WTF are you talking about?