#181: NextGen Air Traffic

Tech Policy Podcast

TechFreedom

Technology

4.8 • 45 Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2017

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is our air traffic control (ATC) system outdated? The White House seems to think so. A couple weeks back, the president announced his support for transferring ATC from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to a nonprofit corporation governed by a board of directors, including representatives of airlines, unions, airports and others. The FAA has struggled for years to upgrade its technology from radar to GPS, and proponents of ATC reform say “privatizing” ATC will enable a NextGen system. Opponents say ATC reform could undermine labor unions, increase costs of travel, and give corporations too much control of our airspace. Evan discusses the pros and cons with Marc Scribner, Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Baruch Feigenbaum Assistant Director of Transportation Policy at the Reason Foundation. For more, see Marc’s FAQ on ATC reform.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tech Policy Podcast. I'm Evan Swartzraver. On today's show, air traffic control. A couple weeks back, the White House announced its support for modernizing the way we route planes. The United States has one of the most complicated air spaces, if not the most complicated airspace in the world. And many are saying that the way we handle it is outdated, that it's more like World War II
0:25.1	than the 21st century.
0:26.6	And how can we bring air traffic control into the 21st century?
0:30.0	And what are some of the concerns from opponents who want to keep this under the government?
0:33.7	Joining me to discuss this is Mark Scribner, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute,
0:37.8	and Baruch Figenbaum, Assistant Director of Transportation Policy at the Reason Foundation.
0:41.9	Gentlemen, thanks for joining.
0:43.7	Thanks for having us.
0:44.7	So the basic technological point here is that some are saying the technology is outdated
0:49.9	and that the federal aviation administration has not been able to update its technology. What exactly do they mean when they say that the Federal Aviation Administration has not been able to update its technology,
0:55.0	what exactly do they mean when they say that the technology we use to route traffic is outdated?
1:02.1	Well, a couple different things.
1:04.7	So first of all, we're using a system that was really World War II era technology
1:09.8	before a lot of the modern features that we have today.
1:13.6	If you're looking at how some of the communications happen, they actually use paper strips, not computers,
1:20.6	when they go around at various bodes of the FCC, because that's basically all their computer system allows them to do. Most other
1:29.1	countries have a more modern system that was developed in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. And one of the
1:36.0	problems is that the FAA by nature is a very conservative organization. They're focused on safety,
1:42.6	and they should be. But in order to get new
1:45.2	modern developments, you really need an organization that's actually looking to the future and
1:50.5	willing to experiment with technology. When you say paper strips, what do you mean?
1:55.9	Well, some of the communication that goes on, they don't actually have electronic readings of doing it.
	...

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