Modernization of U.S. Air Traffic Control Means Modernizing the Whole Aviation System

摘要

On Feb. 24, Congressman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), chairman of the House of Representatives Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, wrote in an opinion editorial published in The Hill: Today, we have the busiest aviation system in the world. Fifty million flights and 800 million passengers traverse our skies every year. In the next decade or so, our system is expected to be moving one billion passengers annually... As the number of passengers grows over the coming year, Americans stand to lose more time and money to delays. Congressman Shuster's context was the slow implementation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) and bureaucracy of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and particularly the burgeoning congestion of the American airspace. "[A] transformative aviation bill is one of the highest priorities of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee this year," he concluded, referring to the 2015 FAA reauthorization legislation, which will set the course not just for the agency for the next five years, but will influence the shape of the U.S. aviation landscape for years to come.