Air Traffic Control Systems in Research Paper

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46). To date, though, these reforms have not materialized and the air traffic control system remains mired in the FAA bureaucracy (McDougall & Roberts, 2008). In this regard, Poole (2008) emphasizes that, "[the air traffic control system] is managed by an unwieldy government bureaucracy, micromanaged by Congress, and subjected to the ups and downs of the federal budget process. And as air travel continues to grow, the air traffic control system is less and less able to keep pace" (p. 11).

Based on the importance of sound air traffic control systems, there have been a number of studies conducted to determine the primary causes of existing air traffic control system deficiencies. The research to date has identified five main causes as follows:

1. Procurement: cumbersome federal procurement processes end up taking five to seven years to acquire new radar and computer systems -- at a time when a new generation of computers comes along about every 18 months. Thus, the air traffic control system is getting further and further behind.

2. Personnel: federal civil service rules are incompatible with the needs of a high-stress, 24-hour-a-day service business, which must be able to attract and keep the right people in the right, locations at all times.

3. Budget process: the need for air traffic control resources is driven by the growth in aviation activity -- but the FAA's resources are determined by the constraints of balancing the federal budget; moreover, unlike a business, the FAA must fund all major capital expenditures on a pay-as-you-go basis, rather than being able to borrow to pay for long-lived improvements.

4. Micromanagement: both the Department of Transportation and Congress take up huge amounts of FAA management time exerting detailed "oversight" of its operations, keeping it from making and implementing effective long-range plans.

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5. Conflict of interest: the FAA serves as both the aviation safety regulator and as the operator of a major component of the aviation system -- air traffic control. Safety regulation should be at arms-length from air traffic control just as it is from airlines and aircraft manufacturers (Poole, 2008, p. 11).

Clearly, the problems facing the air traffic control system in the United States are multifaceted and complex, but they are not intractable. Other countries have succeeded in updating their air traffic control systems in ways that make the United States approach appear even more outdated. As Poole concludes, "Because air safety is important, the federal government's role evolved into not merely regulating that safety but actually operating the business of guiding planes through the skies. But a government agency is not -- and has never been -- the only conceivable way to operate the business of air traffic control" (2008, p. 12).

Conclusion

The research showed that America's aviation industry is essential for the nation's economic well-being, but it quickly became apparent that the air traffic control system that is place is outdated, understaffed and underfunded. To its credit, the nation's air traffic controllers have managed to eke out as much usability as possible from their antiquated computer-based systems, but the time has come and gone when these systems and the people that operate them receive the support they need from the U.S. government that has remained adamant about retaining this function under the auspices of the Federal Aviation Administration rather than privatizing the function as dozens of other countries have in recent years......

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