Unfriendly skies: air traffic technology drive stalled by colliding agendas.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: HOMELAND SECURITY

BURGEONING GROWTH IN COMMERCIAL AVIATION AND THE increasing pressure on air traffic control is spurring debate on whether U.S. air travel can remain safe and secure.

At the heart of the controversy is an estimated $20 billion plan to modernize air traffic control, airport management and passenger screening operations. The proposed upgrades--backed by the Bush administration and major airlines--would automate air traffic control functions and create a high-tech network for the government and the private sector to manage aviation operations.

Supporters hail the new technology as essential to easing the worsening congestion in U.S. airspace.

The modernization effort, which the Federal Aviation Administration dubbed "Next Gen," has proved divisive on several fronts. Its opponents feature a motley collection of constituencies--general aviation groups, small businesses and air-traffic controllers. They argue that the FAA's suggested funding mechanism to pay for the new technology via "user fees" from aircraft operators and major airlines would unfairly penalize small aircraft operators. They also maintain that the FAA is putting too much emphasis on automation and ultimately wants to privatize air traffic control, which could undermine public safety.

The agency has asked Congress to approve funding and user fees to begin buying the new technology in fiscal year 2008. The idea is to raise at least half a billion dollars in user fees and seek the rest from private financing in the open capital markets.

House and Senate committees have revised the FAA legislation several times, in an effort to satisfy the concerns of the competing interest groups, and so far the outcome remains uncertain.

Backers of the modernization plan grouse that the longer the project is stalled by politics, the more difficult it will be to handle the increasing demand for airspace capacity.

Next Gen represents a "transformation to a new system that will use satellite-based technologies and state-of-the-art procedures to handle the increasing volume of air traffic, while further improving safety and security," said Gerald L. Dillingham, an analyst at the Government Accountability Office.

Government officials contend that the technology is badly needed to improve security, because it would allow the FAA and the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense to share a common, real-time, picture of the national airspace.

Commercial aviation not only needs to be better protected from terrorist attacks but also must operate more efficiently, said Stephen Alterman, president of the Cargo Airlines Association.

"Estimates vary, but it's clear that commercial aviation will double during the next two decades," Alterman told an industry conference. "We are on a very short window."

He charged that narrow political agendas currently are "holding up" modernization.

"We have to get away from World War II ground-based systems and move to satellite-based systems for managing air traffic," Alterman said. "The FAA has recognized this ... We need legislation to do what we need to do."

Among the major components of the Next Gen system is a technology called "automatic dependent surveillance broadcast." ADSB is a satellite-based system that allows aircraft to broadcast their position to others. The FAA requested $80 million in fiscal year 2007 and $85.7 million in 2008 for this technology. The FAA estimated it will cost $1.2 billion to equip all U.S. aircraft and air traffic control facilities with the new system.

Another element of Next Gen is a "system wide information management" network called SWIM. The FAA said this technology is equivalent to a dedicated internet for airspace users that will give government agencies and aviation operators access to information...