Air traffic control (ATC) is a very small part of the federal budget, but it is an essential component of a safe and cost-effective aviation industry. Of all the air traffic control systems in developed countries, ours is one of the very few still funded by taxes and micromanaged by a political body. Over the past 30 years, nearly all major countries have separated air traffic control from their transportation ministries and converted it into a user-funded utility.

The U.S. Air Traffic Organization (ATO) is embedded within the FAA, a bureaucratic safety regulatory agency. FAA regulates all aspects of aviation at arm’s-length—except for the ATO. Self-regulation is a conflict of interest and violates recommended practices of the International Civil Aviation Administration (ICAO), which calls for arm’s-length separation between the safety regulator and all other aviation entities.

Our ATC system is the world’s largest and was once known as the world’s most advanced. That is no longer the case. Countless studies have shown that other countries’ ATC systems are better-managed, better-funded, and better-supplied with advanced technology than our ATO. The United States is far behind in implementing remote/digital control towers, which are safer, more effective, and less costly than the 20th-century brick-and-mortar towers that FAA is still building. Air traffic controllers in U.S. control towers still use paper flight strips to follow departing flights instead of having electronic hand-offs.

there were gobs of employees that had 40 or more years and wouldn't retire. They didn't do much anyway and were civil service and needed to go as they were working for not much more than they would get in retirement. Plus, we had gobs of employees that were not Civil Service but had a half million or more $ in the Gov's thrift savings plan plus drawing their salary and social security and wouldn't retire. Those are the ones "DOGE" should send letters to.

Bob