Release #99.69

November 3, 1999

WASHINGTON---The head of the Air Line Pilots Association, International today announced that the union was embarking on a six-year effort to support a joint government-industry plan to modernize the national airspace system (NAS).

"We are facing gridlock at our busiest airports," said Captain Duane Woerth, president of ALPA. "Today is Day 1 of a six-year program by ALPA to assist, and if need be, prod both the government and industry toward completion of the modernization plan that was hammered out by the FAA, ALPA, the airlines, and other segments of the aviation community, through the RTCA Free Flight Advisory Committee process."

Woerth announced the program at a conference on NAS modernization sponsored this week in Washington, D.C. by the George Washington University.

"Our National Airspace System has not kept pace with growing capacity demands. As a stopgap, a number of capacity enhancement techniques have been introduced. Most of these involve reduced separation of airplanes; and some of them affect safety to the point where we are quite concerned about increased risks," Woerth said.

"We cannot get to where we need to go using these marginal, short-term fixes. We have to plunge ahead with the more comprehensive approaches embodied in the government/industry RTCA Free Flight Partnership. These will require time, equipment, and money. Time is running out; but we have the technology. We even have the money -- if we can shake it free of the Congressional budgeting process," he said.

"Right now there’s more than enough money to do the job, and it’s already being collected from passengers in the form of ticket taxes. Unfortunately, the money is locked up in the Aviation Trust Fund, where one-year budget cycles and two-year election cycles hold a noose around the flow of needed dollars. We need to take the Aviation Trust Fund off budget to fund NAS modernization, and Congress has a unique window of opportunity to do so right now in the FAA reauthorization bill," Woerth said.

"Please note that we call it 'NAS modernization,' not just 'air traffic control modernization.' That's because while ATC modernization is desperately needed, we cannot overlook the other crucial part of the equation, which is airports and runways. It doesn't matter how efficient and how safe make it up there, moving airplanes from point to point, if we don't have enough runways and airports to launch them on their journeys, and receive them at the other end. So airports and runways will be an inte gral part of our campaign," he said.

"With the approval this morning of our Executive Board, ALPA will devote a significant portion of our resources, as well as time from our staff and pilot safety volunteers, in support of this goal. We are not interested in pointing fingers at anyone. The options are clear and simple: get the job done, or pay the consequences such that everyone will share some part of the blame, and the traveling public will be the ultimate victims of our collective inaction," he said.

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ALPA CONTACT: John Mazor (703) 481-4440