Air Traffic Control Reform Newsletter

Reason's Air Traffic Control Newsletter regularly examines and analyzes the latest air traffic news and developments. If you would like to receive the Air Traffic Control Reform Newsletter via email, please send an email with your contact information to the newsletter's author, Robert Poole, Reason's director of transportation studies.

Reason's Air Traffic Control research and commentary is available here.

Issue 52 - April 2008
Topics include: the no-reform FAA reauthorization; U.S. vs. Europe on ATC modernization; FAA "re-baselining," continued; synthetic vision--a key to capacity expansion; controllers' role in NextGen; and other news.
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Issue 51 - March 2008
Topics include: concerns over FAA's plan for ADS-B; Inspector General on general aviation's ATC usage; the staffed "virtual tower"; controller hiring—trouble with numbers; "rebaselining" hides ongoing procurement problems; and other news.
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Issue 50 - February 2008
Topics include: FAA budget woes—again; the $25 modernization surcharge; a GPS backup plan; environmental benefits of ATC reform; runway capacity and ATC modernization; and other news.
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Issue 49 - January 2008
Topics include: an economist's approach to ATC reform; fixing runway incursions; world's best ATC providers; implementation failure--a warning for NextGen; misrepresenting air traffic delays; and other news.
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Issue 48 - October 2007
Topics include: blaming weather for ATC delays; controller salaries; business jets expanding in user-fee countries; faster implementation of ADS-B; and other news.
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Issue 47 - September 2007
Topics include: aviation elder statesmen call for fundamental ATC reforms; business/personal jets and ATC congestion; backup for GPS getting closer; airlines' strange new funding proposal; and other news.
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Issue 46 - July/August 2007
Topics include: House version of FAA reauthorization; paying for ATC services; Congress blocking facility consolidation; user fees and Europe's bizjet boom; rationing airspace has begun; and other news.
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Issue 45 - June 2007
Topics include: three keys to ATC reform; a funding crunch or not?; cost of billing (a huge new bureaucracy?); governance—the real issue; why we need arms-length safety regulation; and other news.
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Issue 44 - May 2007
Topics include: Senate FAA reauthorization bill; cracks in the general aviation anti-reform monolith?; glitches in flight service modernization; breaking the mold on controller training?; moving NextGen from concept to implementation; and other news.
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Issue 43 - April 2007
Topics include: governance reform; responsibility for controller fatique; alternatives for ADS-B; FAA outsources RNP development; overflight fees; and other news.
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Issue 42 - March 2007
Topics include: responding to user fee critics; the need for real bonding for ATC Modernization; commercialization vs. privatization of ATC; what a Russ Chew is really worth; and other news.
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Issue 41 - February 2007
Topics include: FAA's funding proposal; a "manufactured" funding crisis?; the controller retirement problem; the departure of Russ Chew; boom times for European business aviation; and other news.
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Issue 40 - January 2007
Topics include: the urgency of ATC reform; ATC funding challenges; yet another "controller shortage;" progress on aviation weather; sequenced landings; and other news.
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Issue 39 - November 2006
Topics include: Nav Canada's 10th anniversary; financing the NextGen ATC system; clear thinking on ATC User Fees; beefing up the controller workforce; and other news.
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Issue 38 - October 2006
Topics include: mixed messages on funding Next-Generation system; contract towers' dramatic safety record; lessons from the D.C. airports restructuring; a cost-effective backup for GPS-based navigation; and other news.
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Issue 37 - September 2006
Topics include: lessons from Lexington, ATC reform lessons from Canada & U.K.; runway incursions and operational errors; far off benefits from ADS-B; and other news.
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Issue 36 - July 2006
Topics include: benefits of ATC reform, user fees for business aviation; the Mineta Commission report, ten years later; System Wide Information Management; and ATC privatization advances in Europe.
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Issue 35 - June 2006
Topics include: ATC overload likely result of growth in very light jets; "base closing commission needed for ATC; speeding up RNP routes; the ATC funding crunch; and NATCA's losing contract battle.
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Issue 34 - May 2006
Topics include: NATCA's contract gamble backfires; paying for the next generation ATC system; getting control of controllers' schedules; and business aviation prospering despite higher costs.
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Issue 33 - April 2006
Topics include: Congress vs. ATC facility consolidation; the promise of "green landings;" Congress and the controllers' contract; and ADS-B for everyone?
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Issue 32 - February 2006
Topics include: new study on ATC commercialization; revenue bonds for ATC modernization; facing facts on ATC facilities; and changing the rules on labor negotiations.
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Issue 31 - January 2006
Topics include: NATCA's critique of ATC user fees; real progress on terminal-area capacity; thoughts on controller contract negotiations; and ATC commercialization's impact on Canadian bizjet sales.
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Issue 30 - November 2005
Topics include: preconditions for implementing NGATS; the Cost of collecting user fees; GPS navigation going nationwide; more on out-of-control facilities; and next-generation controllers.
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Issue 29 - September 2005
Topics include: GAO's call for major ATC cost savings; taxes vs. user fees; overseas ATC corporation success; out of control TRACONs; and decision time on flight service station outsourcing.
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Issue 28 - July 2005
Topics include: a congressional threat to flight service outsourcing; another TRACON scandal; progress on ATC funding reform; a global comparison of ATC performance; and S&P on ATC corporations.
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Issue 27 - June 2005
Topics include: the FAA Management Advisory Council's call for reform; the nightmare at the New York TRACON; governance at Nav Canada; and NBAA's distortions on user fees.
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Issue 26 - May 2005
Topics include: FAA forum on ATC funding crunch; Reason's new ATC funding report; the Aviation Trust Fund; GAO's report on commercialized ATC providers overseas; and Congressman Mica's hearing on the FAA funding crunch.
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Issue 25 - April 2005
Topics include: user charges for ATC services; the FAA funding crunch; fresh thinking on ATC modernization; and Reason's upcoming ATC funding report.
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Issue 24 - February 2005
Topics include: lessons from flight service station outsourcing; FAA's budget woes; increasing controller productivity through technology; and why more flight levels aren't producing expected time savings.
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Issue 23 - January 2005
Topics include: FAA's controller workforce plan, next-generation air traffic management, entrepreneurial airservices in the Pacific, and ATC privatization in Germany.
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Issue 22 - November 2004
Topics include: FAA's "perfect storm" budget crisis, operational error reporting, expanding ATC capacity, and the controller workforce issue.
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Issue 21 - September 2004
Topics include: controller shortages, ATC procurement reform in Australia, identifying ATO's "customers," and consolidating flight service stations.
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Issue 20 - June 2004
Topics include: ATC safety regulation, Nav Canada's rate increase, increasing airspace capacity, and controller-pilot data link communications.
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Issue 19 - April 2004
Topics include: overhauling the ATO, modernizing oceanic ATC systems, delays resulting from aviation system limitations, and modernization budget cuts.
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Issue 18 - February 2004
Topics include: ATC modernization in peril, coping with airline changes, the good and bad in the controller contract extension, and standardizing definitions for safety measures.
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Issue 17 - December 2003
Topics include: union loses privatization battle, ATO's promising debut, the slot credit system, and reconsidering LAAS.
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Issue 16 - October 2003
Topics include: duplicity in the ATC privatization battle, soaring controller costs, evaluating flight changes with software, and separating ATC operations from safety regulations.
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Issue 15 - August 2003
Topics include: controllers' union pushes too hard for ATC privatization ban, flight service station reform, data link decision a setback for modernization, and good news from the Canadian and UK ATC corporations.
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Issue 14 - June 2003
Topics include: anti-outsourcing provisions in the FAA reauthorization bill; Sen. Lautenberg's untruths on overseas ATC corporations; and understanding the Administration's strong stance against anti-privatization amendments.
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Issue 13 - May 2003
Topics include: House committee blocks ATC reform; a "dream" Aviation Subcommittee hearing on ATC reform; former FAA Admin. Langhorne Bond's case for arms-length ATC safety regulation; and the military and contract towers.
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Issue 12 - April 2003
Topics include: modernization at the UK's National Air Traffic Services; FAA's continuing budget woes; facility consolidation; overflight fees overturned in court; and the need for ATC safety regulation.
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Issue 11 - January 2003
Issue devoted solely to a response to the escalation of the campaign against ATC reform by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
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Issue 10 - January 2003
Topics include: NATCA's new anti-privatization campaign; a response to Sen. Lautenberg's letter; innovation within FAA; and news notes on ATC corporations.
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Issue 9 - December 2002
Issue devoted solely to addressing anti-privatization claims made by controllers and the FAA.
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Issue 8 - November 2002
Topics include: new administrator open to ATC privatization; AOPA warming to flight service outsourcing; the long-term need for more ATC capacity; and FAA's release of guidance for implementing RNP (required navigation performance).
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Issue 7 - August 2002
Topics include: next steps in FAA Reform; the Single European Sky proposal; FAA's new "inherently governmental" policy; and ATC reform and general aviation's future.
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Issue 6 - June 2002
Topics include: Bush rules ATC not "inherently governmental;" modernizing oceanic air traffic control; rescuing U.K.'s NATS; and reinventing FAA one piece at a time.
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Issue 5 - April 2002
Topics include: ATC modernization threatened by budget shortfalls; RVSM revisited; more FAA accounting system troubles; and corporatized ATC and rural areas.
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Issue 4 - February 2002
Topics include: expanding airspace capacity via RVSM; NATCA's last-ditch defense of "inherently governmental;" the real story behind the NATS "bailout;" and other news.
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Issue 3 - February 2002
Topics include: corporatized ATC providers adjusting to lower air traffic; the FAA modernization slowdown; and the wrangle over controller productivity.
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Issue 2 - November 2001
Topics include: NavCanada copes with September 11th shut-down; ATC providers adjust to air travel slowdown; ATC corporatizations in Denmark, Hungary, and Singapore; and other breaking news.
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