The US Federal Aviation Administration plans to run its air traffic services (ATS) division as a business, funded largely by user fees, beginning in January 1999.
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey says that draft legislation is being drawn up to convert the ATS operation into a "performance based organisation", as recommended by last year's National Civil Aviation Review Commission (NCARC).
A previous attempt by the FAA to spin off its air traffic operations into a Government owned corporation was blocked by Congress in the early 1990s. This time the agency expects more success, as the NCARC recommendations have strong Congressional backing.
The proposal has also been modified in a bid to avoid opposition from the controllers' union and general aviation. The ATS workforce would remain Federal employees and general aviation would continue to pay its share of FAA funding through a fuel tax, and not user fees.
Garvey says that a cost accounting system should be in place by October. The amount by which airline ticket taxes are replaced by user fees "will be clearer once ATS has been separated out from the core FAA", she says.
Source: Flight International