The “big airlines” are once again pushing for a privatized U.S. air traffic control system so they can “take control of ATC for their economic benefit,” NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen warned attendees this morning during the opening session at the 2016 NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference in Tampa, Fla. “They want economic power and domination.”

He said the legacy U.S. airlines first pressed for privatizing ATC in the 1990s so they could prevent new entrants by governing ATC. “Then in 2006, the Airline Transport Association advocated for the same thing, saying they wanted to do three things: control ATC, get Congress out of the way and shift $1.5 billion in air traffic costs to business aviation,” Bolen noted. “The motive is the same today.”

With Congress expected to unveil an FAA reauthorization bill next month that will contain language to privatize ATC and implement aviation user fees, “The battle is not looming, it is imminent,” he said. Bolen asked attendees to “take a few minutes this week” to get involved by using NBAA’s Contact Congress page, which is now mobile device friendly, to let their representatives know that they oppose a privatized ATC system.

“We have the biggest and best ATC system in the world,” he concluded. “We are all for improving it, but handing control of ATC to the airlines isn’t going to help improve it. This will only reduce competition and unnecessarily shift costs to business aviation users.”