CAA: GA News, "Air traffic controllers at odds with government over towers"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thursday, January 24, 2002

Air traffic controllers at odds with government over towers 
By JOHN NOLAN
The Associated Press


CINCINNATI (AP) -- An air traffic controllers' union asked an appeals
court Thursday to order the government to retake control of towers at
smaller airports that have been privately managed for nine years. 

The privatization, done under the Clinton administration, violates
federal law and longstanding national policy that air traffic control is
a government responsibility, union lawyer William Osborne Jr. told the
6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Control towers are privately operated at about 130 smaller airports
nationwide including Yakima, Wash., Riverside, Calif., Pompano Beach,
Fla., Charlottesville, Va., Joplin, Mo., Dothan, Ala., and Niagara
Falls, N.Y. 

In Ohio, affected airports are Burke Lakefront in Cleveland, Lunken
Airport in Cincinnati and the Ohio State University airport in Columbus.


The National Air Traffic Controllers Association also argues that
privately operated control towers use smaller staffs than those run by
the Federal Aviation Administration. They say the reduced staffing could
lead to safety problems, especially in light of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks. 

FAA officials say the private operations are safe and legal. 

Thomas Bondy, the FAA's lawyer, urged the appeals court to uphold a
lower court's ruling that the FAA program may continue. 

"This is not an agency that has been found to have operated in bad faith
or to have done anything illegal," he said. 

Bondy said the FAA will comply with a 2000 order from U.S. District
Judge Ann Aldrich in Cleveland to give her more explanation to justify
why the privatization was done. 

Airline industry officials and congressional supporters of the 1993
privatization argued then that the FAA had bungled efforts to modernize
the nation's air traffic control system. They said putting control
towers under private control would make air travel more efficient and
relieve backlogs. 

Appeals Judges Martha Craig Daughtrey, Nathaniel Jones and R. Guy Cole
Jr. did not say when they will rule. 

The union sued in Cleveland after unionized controllers at Burke
Lakefront Airport lost their jobs because of the change to private
management. Union officials say the privatization displaced 1,500
controllers nationwide. 

FAA officials have said the privatized towers were intended for smaller
airports where pilots fly under visual-flight rules. But many of the
airports with privatized towers handle substantial air traffic involving
instrument-flown aircraft that carry passengers, union officials said.


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http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID2

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