"Airport towers could land in private hands"

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Airport towers could land in private hands 
By Jane Hodges 
The Seattle (WA) Times


Paine Field in Everett and Boeing Field in Seattle are among 69 airports
nationwide, and the only ones in Washington, whose air-traffic-control
towers could become eligible for privatization. 

If Congress passes the proposal, the federal government could replace local
controllers at the towers with outside workers from private companies in the
coming years. 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has for 22 years outsourced
control-tower work to private companies and already has 219 so-called
contract towers. 

Mike Fergus, an FAA regional spokesman, emphasized that the list of airports
- recently identified in President Bush's FAA-reauthorization bill -
includes sites that meet certain criteria that would make them suitable for
contract management. Some airports are small or rural, for instance, while
others primarily handle traffic from pilots who use simple navigation plans.


Fergus said eligibility for contract management does not mean privatization
is imminent. 

"We have no plans to take action," Fergus said. 

David Brasko, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers
Association's Boeing Field chapter, doesn't believe that. "I think they're
lying," he said. 

Air traffic controllers have begun voicing opposition to the plans by
speaking out and writing to congressional representatives. They're
contesting the safety of contract towers and trying to protect their jobs
because privatization would eliminate controllers at both airports: 15 to 20
at Boeing Field and 11 or 12 at Paine Field. Congress is expected to vote on
the proposal this fall. 

"Our hope is to defeat the bill," said James Haugen, an air traffic
controller and association representative at the Paine Field tower. "If the
Boeing Company, (Airport Director) Dave Waggoner and the local aviation
community could contact their senators, it would help." 

A new tower was recently constructed at Paine Field and is scheduled to
start operating at the end of October. 

The government has said that privatizing the towers could help save up to
$54 million a year, Fergus said, though the average cost to operate a
contract tower has steadily risen from $288,000 a year in 2000 to $367,000
this year. Noncontract towers cost an average of about $922,000 a year to
operate, he said. 

Airport flight towers aren't the only facilities that the Bush
administration is considering privatizing. The proposed reauthorization bill
for national highways would legalize the operation of gas stations,
restaurants and hotels at interstate-highway rest areas, a reversal of a
decades-old ban.


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