On Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta made use of his speech at the annual luncheon of Washington’s Aero Club to talk about the future of the FAA and how it will be funded. First there was the encrypted user-fee warning: “I cannot give you the details yet, but I expect that we are going to see a cost-based plan that creates a more direct relationship between revenue collected and services provided,” he said. That new plan is in the “final stages,” he added. Then, Mineta moved on to blast NATCA’s contract proposal, now under negotiation. That proposal would cost the FAA more than $2 billion over the next five years, Mineta said, diverting funds needed for capacity improvements and modernization. “We cannot afford this,” he said. NATCA, to no one’s surprise, begs to differ. The FAA is “playing loose with the facts,” according to Ruth Marlin, NATCA executive vice president. A large portion of the nation’s controllers are very senior and are at retirement ages, Marlin said in a statement. “All the FAA has to do is let them retire and replace them with new hires, and under the Union’s proposal they will save $543 million over five years.”
Mineta Warns Of User Fees, NATCA Contract
Key Takeaways:
- Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta announced an upcoming "cost-based plan" for FAA funding and criticized NATCA's contract proposal as an unaffordable $2 billion over five years, which would divert funds from capacity improvements and modernization.
- Mineta explicitly stated that the FAA "cannot afford" NATCA's proposed contract due to its significant cost impact.
- NATCA refuted Mineta's claims, asserting that the FAA is "playing loose with the facts" and that their proposal would actually save $543 million over five years by replacing senior, retiring controllers with new hires.
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