EUROPEAN AVIATION COMMUNITY LOOKS TO U.S.
MODEL
FOR AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL; PRIVATIZATION
CRITICIZED
WASHINGTON - As the worldwide debate
intensifies
about how best to provide the service
of
air traffic control, the National Air
Traffic
Controllers Association is discovering
that
many officials from around the world
are
looking to the United States for leadership.
NATCA Executive Vice President Ruth
E. Marlin
was eager to learn last week that many
top
European airline and air traffic service
officials not only share NATCA's strong
views
against the privatization of air traffic
control in the United States, but want
to
use the United States as a model for
how
to improve their own systems.
At the ATC 2001 Conference in Maastricht,
Netherlands, a representative
from KLM Airlines asked Victor M. Aguado,
the Director General of Eurocontrol,
when
Europe would follow the U.S. example
and
implement a collaborative decision
process,
which is an integral part of the FAA's
spring/summer
initiatives and something NATCA supports
as an effort to improve service and
reduce
delays.
As Wolfgang Phillip, a senior director
at
Eurocontrol, spoke of enhancing the
performance
of European Air Traffic Management,
the KLM
representative stated that the Federal
Aviation
Administration, under the direction
of Administrator
Jane Garvey, has taken aggressive action
in response to the U.S. system's problem
of delays, while Eurocontrol is proposing
a similar system that will take three
years
to implement.
Phillip said Eurocontrol "needs
a picture
based on radar data like they
have in the United States. We don't
have
it yet." Phillip added that
Eurocontrol advised that the cost associated
with deploying a system comparable
to the
United States' precludes immediate
action.
Sir Roy McNulty, Chairman of the National
Air Traffic Services in the
U.K., said the recent public-private
partnership
there advised that
privatization is not the only solution,
especially
for those systems that can achieve
significant
flexibility within their governments.
At
the Eurocontrol Guild of Air Traffic
Services
conference, "Privatization: Blessing
or Curse?", the vast majority
of speakers
criticized air traffic control privatization.
Said Marlin: "The European Community
shares the U.S. problems with delays,
overscheduling,
noise abatement and weather. In fact,
my
first day here, news outlets were reporting
a potential legislative initiative
for passenger
rights similar to U.S. proposals for
a passenger
bill of rights. Clearly, the illusion
offered
by our opponents that the U.S. air
traffic
control system is under-performing
is just
that, an illusion."
Considering the fact that the United
States
does not tightly regulate
airline schedules and slots like they
do
in Europe, Marlin said, "we have
a system
that performs as well if not better
than
those across the
Atlantic."
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