Panel, industry decry lack of progress on FAA's 'NextGen'

The United States is in danger of falling behind small nations such as Mongolia in developing satellite-based air traffic control technology, the Senate Commerce Aviation Subcommittee was told Wednesday.

Jim May, the president of Air Transport Association of America, said the United States is losing ground, even as the Airport Trust Fund was in dire straits and increasingly unable to pay for the FAA's multibillion-dollar "NextGen" plan to modernize the agency's air traffic control network.

He said the project would have to be financed by a combination of U.S. Treasury funds and innovative new funding mechanisms such as tax credits and bonds.

May discouraged the subcommittee from considering airport user fees -- a proposal that has delayed enactment of an FAA reauthorization program for the last two years. "There are just so many battles that the subcommittee can take on," he said.

Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said the current system is untenable. At a time when many cars are equipped with global positioning equipment, "we still have a ground-based air control system that can tell you about where an aircraft is ... not exactly where it is," Dorgan said.

The user-fee option has the backing of the major airlines but has been adamantly opposed by corporate jet owners and business aviation groups.

In other testimony, Chip Barclay, the president of the American Association of Airport Executives, urged increasing the passenger facilities charge, the levy used to help finance airport maintenance and improvements, from the cap of $4.50 set in 2001, to $7.50 to reflect the inflation in construction costs over the last decade.

Subcommittee members and the industry representatives deplored the just-released flight recorder transcript revealing how the cockpit crew of a commuter plane was engaging in small talk just before the aircraft careened out of control in February and crashed near Buffalo, N.Y., killing 50 people.

Dorgan said he was especially appalled to read the admission of the co-pilot that she was glad to be only second-in-command because she knew nothing about aircraft icing conditions. "I got to tell you I was really troubled ... I was stunned," Dorgan said.

"When you read the transcript, it is appalling," agreed Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb.

Remarked former FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, who appeared as president of the Aerospace Industries Association: "When something like this comes to light, it shakes up all of us." Dorgan indicated that he would revisit the issue when the subcommittee holds a hearing on air safety this year.