Washington, DC – General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) President and CEO Pete Bunce today issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 budget proposal, which again includes language proposing shifting the air traffic control function of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to an independent, non-governmental, cooperative organization.

“The U.S. has the safest, most efficient, most technically advanced system in the world. Many other countries around the world utilize airspace system modernization technologies and procedures that the FAA designed and implemented. No other country has a nationwide deployed Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) ground infrastructure. Similarly, the U.S. leads the world in deployment of data communication technology. The saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” most definitely applies here – why do we need to disrupt an entire system and change it, when the U.S. system is the safest, most efficient in the world?”

“The Administration and a few members of Congress continue to offer proposals that would take the management of air traffic control operations from the FAA, which places the public interest as its top priority, and give that management to a private entity that would only be responsible to a small, insular board. The proposals remain a bad idea that lack industry and political consensus, particularly at a time when new industries like commercial space, unmanned aerial vehicles and urban mobility air vehicles will share the nation’s airspace. These air traffic control privatization proposals also continue to be the main reason that other necessary regulatory and certification reforms remain in legislative limbo, delaying what could otherwise be immediate, positive impacts on not just the U.S. airspace system and its users, but also the country’s economy and job creation. They should not be held hostage any longer by unproductive discussions about an unneeded and potentially devastating change to the world’s safest system.”

For additional information, please contact Sarah McCann, GAMA Director of Communications, at +1 (202) 393-1500 or smccann@gama.aero.