Clinton to unveil Air Traffic control changes

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Posted at 4:06 a.m. PST Thursday, Dec. 7, 2000

Clinton to unveil Air Traffic control changes BY TIM DOBBYN

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton will announce steps Thursday to deal with worsening flight congestion and delays by making the government's air traffic control arm a performance-based organization with its own chief operating officer, administration officials said.

In addition, Clinton will propose eliminating the tax paid by airline passengers that funds air traffic control operations and replacing it with a system of user fees to be paid directly by commercial airlines, the officials said.

The user fee proposal, which must be approved by Congress, has already been criticized by airlines.

Clinton will ask the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration to study the possibility of implementing ``congestion pricing'' -- charging airlines higher landing fees at peak times.

Currently landing fees are determined by an aircraft's weight.

``These actions are part of a larger administration effort to improve airline travel and reduce airline delays for American consumers,'' one administration official said of the proposals, which Clinton will present at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT).

The approach rejects the privatization route taken by some countries, a decision welcomed by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA).

``NATCA is in complete agreement with the administration's position that air traffic control is inherently governmental,'' said NATCA President John Carr.

``This executive order illustrates that the FAA has the latitude to achieve efficiencies needed without the short-sighted and ill-conceived notion of privatization,'' said Carr, without providing details of the plan.

SOLUTION TO HELP OVERBURDENED SYSTEM COPE

For two years the air traffic control system has been struggling to cope with increased traffic, particularly during the summer months when thunderstorms play havoc with crowded flight paths.

Coordination of the control system has been centralized and the FAA has increased cooperation with airlines to try to alleviate the problems, but experts agree new air traffic control technologies and more runways are needed.

The president's executive order will direct the FAA to create a new air traffic services organization that will focus exclusively on air traffic control services.

The Air Traffic Organization (ATO) will be run by a chief operating officer, who the FAA expected to hire early next year, one administration source said. The source said the appointee's salary would be ``outside the normal government pay range.''

The FAA would still retain overall responsibility for aviation safety and security.

Officials said the new organization would be good for consumers because it would be more responsive to the needs of the airlines and hence the needs of the flying public.

``It will create the business-like management that can implement changes more rapidly,'' said one official. ``This is designed to make sure that the infrastructure keeps up with the times.''

DIRECT BORROWING ABILITY SOUGHT

To give the new organization more flexibility in making investments, the president would also suggest allowing the FAA to borrow money from the U.S. Treasury or tapping capital markets, instead of relying on often politically-disputed congressional appropriations, officials said.

``If you can finance it, you don't have to worry about the whims of the congressional appropriations process,'' said one.

The officials said the FAA was developing a procedure that will enable it to identify the cost of providing air traffic services to a particular flight, a prerequisite for the proposal to move to user fees for commercial airlines.

The U.S. government already uses a similar system to charge airlines for air traffic services when they fly over the United States, for instance, on a flight from Mexico to Canada.

Small private and corporate operators would continue to pay a fuel tax to pay for air traffic services

http://www0.mercurycenter.com/nation/nationwire/docs/717698l.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), December 07, 2000


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