Privatizing the air space and ATC

"All people, however fanatical they may be in their zeal to disparage and to fight capitalism, implicitly pay homage to it by passionately clamoring for the products it turns out."-- Ludwig von Mises

The FAA, Federal Aviation Administration, has been criticized for not updating the ATC, (Air Traffic Control) of the American skies. Outdated computer equipment has impeded the growth of the air transportation and caused billions of dollars in cost to airlines and other businesses due to delays and poor routing. Billions of hours have been lost by consumers.

In the current air traffic system, a jumbo jet carrying 400 passengers uses a block of airspace in cruising altitude that is about 10 miles square and 2000 feet thick. A small business jet carrying only one person, a company executive, or a dog, takes up the same amount of airspace as the fully loaded jumbo jet. On arrival and landing they both take up equal space, though the small jet has to fly with greater separation if behind a jumbo jet due to wake turbulence. They both pay different amounts for the use of that airspace, that is, the government does not charge them directly for using the space. The FAA operates on a budget that includes user fees, fuel excise taxes, and ticket taxes, etc., which all are political in nature to say the least. http://www.library.unt.edu/gpo/NCARC/testimony/swa-te.htm

The General Aviation lobby in April 2008 defeated a proposal that would charge $25 per trip fee for small airplanes. http://www.eaa.org/news/2008/2008-06-12_user_fees.asp

All the users of the ATC system fight over user fees and airport slots. It's time to look after the passengers and the real owners of American airspace, the citizens.
It's time to privatize the American airspace. It's time to create a for profit corporation that charges users for the airspace based on the value at that time and place. The corporation will be The ATC Corporation, owned by each American citizen with an equal number of shares. Dividends will be paid to share holders who are over 70 years old.

Make the users pay for the block of space they are using based on the scarcity of the airspace. On a noon arrival at Chicago's O'Hare airport the skies are crowded and therefore the space is more valuable. Charge a fee to the users of that space. The market would make it more efficient for a jumbo jet full of passengers to pay for that value than it would for a corporate jet with a CEO on board. The company whose only passenger was a CEO might be willing to pay the same fee as the jumbo jet with 400 passengers. That would increase the profits to the ATC Corporation. Charging based on value would reduce peak traffic times and reduce delays.

The cost to the company with the jet carrying only the CEO would be passed on to the consumers and shareholders eventually. But uncontrolled costs in a free market drives corporations out of business.

In uncrowded airspace and times, the costs for the use of that airspace would be minimum.

The FAA would still function, but now it would function mostly for safety, not the conflict it currently has about trying to promote aviation AND safety.

The (AOPA) Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association would lobby vehemently against this privatization proposal. So would most other users. The beneficiaries would be 300 million US citizens who would reap the profits from the market.

The free market works.

Charles Tolleson