CAA: GA News, "Airport managers call private control tower operation safe"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

February 16, 2002

Airport managers call private control tower operation safe
The Cincinnati (OH) Post


A 20-year program that allows the Federal Aviation Administration to let
private contractors operate control towers at Lunken Airport and other
smaller airports saves money and is as safe as having FAA- manned
towers, an association of airport managers says.

The support of the American Association of Airport Executives for the
program is at odds with an air traffic controllers' union, which has
sued to have control of 209 towers at small U.S. airports returned to
the government.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents the
nation's 15,000 controllers in FAA-manned towers, says the FAA
improperly authorized private operation of those control towers nine
years ago. The lawsuit also says the program could undermine safety
because the private towers use smaller control staffs than FAA- operated
towers.

The airport managers' association supports the privatization program,
saying it allowed smaller airports around the country to have control
towers. Without the program, the FAA probably could not afford to
operate towers there, said Spencer Dickerson, the association's vice
president.

"Our members are the public airport directors. They wouldn't support
this program if they had any concerns about public safety," he said.

In Ohio, in addition to Lunken, the private towers operate at Burke
Lakefront Airport in Cleveland and Ohio State University's airport at
Columbus.

The union's lawsuit - pending since 1994 - says the privatization
violates federal law and long-standing national policy that air traffic
control is a government responsibility.

In 2000, U.S. District Judge Ann Aldrich ordered the FAA to give her a
more detailed explanation of why the private-tower program was done.

Last week, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told the FAA to provide
Aldrich with the information after the union pointed out that the FAA
hasn't complied in two years.

The FAA said it will provide the information.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 show how important air traffic control
is and that the government should be in charge of it, said John Carr,
president of the controllers' union.

Dickerson pointed out that audits by the U.S. Department of
Transportation's inspector general have concluded that the contractor-
operated towers function as well as FAA-manned towers.

Congress has continuously funded the program since it began in 1982.
That was after President Reagan fired 11,000 unionized air traffic
controllers who went on strike in 1981.

As a result of shifting some controllers from smaller airports to larger
ones to fill vacancies created by the 1981 firing, the FAA obtained
congressional approval to hire out for air traffic control at 79 smaller
airports. In 1993, the program was expanded.


   Post your opinion on this story in the CAA General Aviation Forum
http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID2

*****************************************