Feb 23, 2016 4 min read

People who toil in the media are frequently asked why we don’t report any good news. We do, but another way to look at it is that the good things that happen day to day are pretty routine, and we take them for granted. Imagine a news story that reported something like this: “Every airplane landed safely at Pittsburgh International Airport Tuesday. One after another, the planes, of various sizes, drifted harmlessly back to the ground after journeys from Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Indianapolis, Chicago and other points across the map.”

The story would also have to note “in addition to the uneventful landings, scores of airplanes took off safely, all gathering speed as they left the runway and jetted into the heavens.”

That would be a pretty dull story, right? But that, we can be thankful, is the reality most days at airports in the United States. Traveling by air is one of the safest ways to travel, and it’s become increasingly safe due to technological advances, more reliable aircraft and improved knowledge of potential hazards. Flying has become such a benign practice that a commercial traveler would have to hop on a plane every day for 123,000 years before succumbing in a crash.

The safety of the skies can also be credited to the United States’ air traffic control system, which oversees a vast amount of airspace and tracks commercial airliners, corporate jets and planes piloted by private owners who fly for pleasure or business. It’s overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration, but now efforts are afoot to privatize the system, and they’re being led by Congressman Bill Shuster, the Republican who represents Pennsylvania’s Ninth Congressional District, which includes the eastern edges of Washington and Greene counties.

Shuster shepherded a privatization bill earlier this month out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which he chairs, and he hopes to have the whole House vote on it by the end of March. It has the support of a variety of industry groups, but also has its share of detractors, both within the industry and outside it. Supporters say Britain and Canada have successfully switched to a privatized system, and other countries are headed in that direction. On the other hand, Delta Air Lines has come out four-square against it, as have pilots from outside the commercial industry, who say it would give too much power to big airlines and big airports.

We’re inclined to side with the opposition – there’s simply not enough evidence that the current system isn’t working to justify such a radical overhaul of it.

And even though America’s air traffic control system is not perfect, efforts have been ongoing through the Federal Aviation Administration’s NextGen program to modernize it, increase its capacity and minimize delays. It needs time to work and not be blown up. Shuster and his allies also suggest privatizing the system would protect it from congressional interference, but a better way to insulate it is to give the air traffic system an automatic annual appropriation rather than having it be subject to haggling.

Then there is the real possibility that small airports and the travelers who use them would be harmed through user fees they would have to pay through a privatized system, rather than through airline taxes and congressional funding. As a study by Delta Air Lines pointed out, small, rural airports are essentially supported right now by larger airports, and these smaller airports “rely on general aviation but also provide commercial airline services to local residents who need them. The current government-run system ensures equal access to (air traffic control) services for all, regardless of the amount of overall revenue generated by each airport.”

It’s become a cardinal tenet of free-market dogma that the private sector is always less costly and more efficient than the public sector, and that anything and everything should be privatized. While privatization would certainly be beneficial in some areas – state liquor stores, anyone? – we’re not convinced that our skies should be handed over to the highest bidder.