The U.S. airline industry cheered President Donald Trump's announcement on Monday that he would seek to privatize America's aging air traffic control system. "At a time when every passenger has GPS technology in their pockets," the President said, "our air traffic control [ATC] system still runs on radar and ground-based radio systems that they don’t even make anymore, they can’t even fix anymore." "Our antiquated ATC system is responsible for almost half of those delays." All this while more than 50 other nations have reformed their ATC systems, following a longstanding recommendation of the UN-based agency International Civil Aviation Organization. And the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), the air traffic controllers' union, has endorsed a similar plan to the President's, put forward last year by Representative Bill Shuster (R-Pennsylvania), Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Source: Forbes June 07, 2017 17:15 UTC