- Joined
- Mar 25, 2013
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First, I don't have the article with me so and am going on memory. I generally avoid J. Mac Meclellan's writing but so long as is isn't talking about flying directly, he isn't half bad.
He wrote the piece from a perspective that I think many here share: government should relinquish to the private sector traditional government functions whenever possible. He convincingly holds Nav Canada up as a good example of how this can work further south. If you haven't read the article or if the mere prospect of private user fees frightens you, as it certainly does me, the takeaway is this: Canadian GA users below a certain weight class (which is in the neighborhood of a cabin class piston twin) pay $68/year. All airports are included except for the 7 primary Canadian aviation hubs. Those hubs are still open to GA but at an additional fee of $10/day. Nav Canada isn't exactly Halliburton. It is set up as a non-profit corporation that handles, without taxpayer support, all ATC, airport management, charting, weather and flight planning functions. Transport Canada (their FAA) still manages certification, flight standards and most other oversight and enforcement functions.
Let's just for the sake of discussion say that the U.S. privatizes its airspace in precisely the same manner and with the same fee schedule. Would the change be acceptable to you? How do our Canadian friends feel about life under a privatized ATC system and how would they compare the services to that in the U.S.? Feel free to correct any details I flubbed.
He wrote the piece from a perspective that I think many here share: government should relinquish to the private sector traditional government functions whenever possible. He convincingly holds Nav Canada up as a good example of how this can work further south. If you haven't read the article or if the mere prospect of private user fees frightens you, as it certainly does me, the takeaway is this: Canadian GA users below a certain weight class (which is in the neighborhood of a cabin class piston twin) pay $68/year. All airports are included except for the 7 primary Canadian aviation hubs. Those hubs are still open to GA but at an additional fee of $10/day. Nav Canada isn't exactly Halliburton. It is set up as a non-profit corporation that handles, without taxpayer support, all ATC, airport management, charting, weather and flight planning functions. Transport Canada (their FAA) still manages certification, flight standards and most other oversight and enforcement functions.
Let's just for the sake of discussion say that the U.S. privatizes its airspace in precisely the same manner and with the same fee schedule. Would the change be acceptable to you? How do our Canadian friends feel about life under a privatized ATC system and how would they compare the services to that in the U.S.? Feel free to correct any details I flubbed.
