For an alternate viewpoint, see “Counterpoint: Modernization, not Privatization, Is Key to Aviation Leadership.”
The recent government shutdown disrupted U.S. air traffic control (ATC) and frustrated millions of passengers, leading to delays and cancellations. Our ATC system is run as a bureaucracy within the Federal Aviation Administration, so it gets caught in the crossfire when the politicians can’t agree on annual budget bills.
Budget squabbles have repeatedly caused ATC disruptions over the years, and airline passengers can expect more trouble ahead as spending battles intensify amid soaring federal deficits.
The solution is straightforward, as dozens of nations have figured out: separate ATC funding from the government budget to insulate it from politics. ATC can be operated as a stand-alone system funded by fees on airlines and private aircraft. It does not need to be subsidized or mis(managed) by politicians.
Canada’s ATC is an excellent model of reform. The country privatized its system in 1996, establishing it as a self-funded nonprofit corporation. “Nav Canada” has become a leader in ATC innovation and has won international awards for its top-class performance. That success has drawn the attention of Congress, and in 2016, the House Transportation Committee passed an FAA restructuring bill based on the Canadian nonprofit model.
Congress should revive this reform plan, which the first Trump administration supported. The advantage would be not just avoiding political disruptions but also fixing years of labor and technology mismanagement by the FAA and Congress.
As one example, shortages of air traffic controllers have been causing flight delays for years. The FAA has not had the hiring flexibility to solve the problem that a private ATC system would. Also, the FAA is micromanaged by Congress, which nixed the creation of an additional training academy for controllers.
As for technology, the FAA has struggled with its “NextGen” modernization effort, according to a recent report by the agency’s inspector general. After two decades, the multi-billion dollar upgrade has achieved only 16 percent of its intended benefits, and “many key programs and capabilities are over budget and delayed until 2030 or beyond.”
The Government Accountability Office has similarly criticized the ATC, warning last year that “urgent FAA actions are needed to modernize aging systems.” The auditors noted that 51 out of 138 computer systems that keep the airspace safe and efficient are “unsustainable.”
Our system is in crisis because ATC is an increasingly high-tech industry that we are trying to run within an old-fashioned bureaucracy. Without significant reforms, rising air travel demand will severely strain the FAA’s out-of-date system in the years ahead.
One big concern is safety. The ATC system is experiencing equipment outages and near-collisions as the skies become more congested. New technologies can solve these problems, but we are falling behind the Canadians and Europeans on advances such as space-based navigation and remote airport towers.
One aviation think tank observed that for “a world leader in so many advanced technologies, the United States’ exposure to ancient moribund ones in the air traffic control sector almost beggars belief.” Indeed, we are in a strange, backward position on ATC, given that the country previously pioneered so many aviation technologies.
Under a reformed U.S. system, ATC operations would be moved to an entrepreneurial private organization like Canada’s, but the FAA would retain oversight of aviation safety. As ATC expert Robert Poole noted, such a separation of operations from oversight is recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organization.
In 2017, Trump said that our ATC system was “stuck, painfully, in the past … ancient, broken, antiquated.” In 2025, that is even more painfully obvious. The federal bureaucracy does not build airplanes; nor should it be guiding them through the skies.
We need an ATC system with stable funding, attracting top talent and pursuing leading-edge innovation. The only way to achieve that is to separate ATC operations from the dysfunctional federal government.