Against Privatizing Air Traffic Contol in the United States

THE RISKS OF PRIVATIZING AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL

An overwhelming drive for privatization of government jobs is seeing more and more critical areas of national security and safety such as Air Traffic Control falling into the hands of private companies . The underlying logic is that privatization leads to economy in manpower and expenditure to the government . Advocates of privatization support this trend by quoting figures of savings accrued in the past and projected accruals in the future . This empirical data is seen to provide sound basis for the move for privatization of Air

Traffic Control Transformation of a large number of Air Traffic Control facilities in airports in other western countries as Canada and the United Kingdom has provided added impetus to the argument for privatization in the United States . The debate however ignores many essentials such as the need for zero error in providing ATC services , continuity and stability commitment , the need for the state to ensure safety of its citizens what ever be the cost liability and avoiding opening a window of opportunity for terrorist groups to subvert the air travel system in the United States

A key issue in ATC services in the United States is to ensure zero error . America is the prime target for recalcitrant elements such as the Al Qaeda . The safety of services in the given environment is paramount In ATC services this has led to the practice of each tower being manned by at least two personnel at all times . This is being rigorously enforced all across the board in the United States . Regrettably a survey of the ATCs manned by private operators has indicated that there have been a number of cases where the staffing norms have been violated . In one critical case , a single controller on duty having locked himself out of the tower was stranded thereby causing serious security and safety hazard (Hager , 2003 . The common argument of savings in cost by as much as half is greatly offset by such grave anomalies as enumerated above which would not occur given the disincentives which can be imposed on employees through the federal system

While citing examples of countries as Canada and the United Kingdom , a constant argument is the large savings accrued and efficiency achieved in Air Traffic Control in these countries . Canada is stated to have adopted privatization as early as in 1996 . Nav Canada through a series of measures as introduction of equipment and increase in pay of air traffic controllers is credited to have improved the services (Levin 2001 . However the advocates ignore wide variation in the level of air traffic in Canada as well as the density of traffic in many airports across the United States . The dimension and scope of work is at such a wide variation that comparative analysis is likely to lead to faulty conclusions . More over the issue of Air Traffic Control is one which involves public safety and hence decisions have to be based on holistic application of best practices adopted...