Almost everyone agrees that the US air traffic control system is broken.
Longstanding staffing shortages. Antiquated technology. And now, air traffic controllers are caught in the middle of a political tug of war that has nothing to do with their operations.
The government shutdown has left controllers working unpaid, six-day-weeks. That’s worsened a staffing crisis, with some airports’ control towers occasionally being without any controllers at all.
And now that crisis, combined with the shutdown, has led to Federal Aviation Administration limits on flights at the nation’s 40 largest airports, with hundreds of flight cancellations daily and disruptions across the country.
There’s no immediate remedy. But some experts say there are solutions that could change the dynamic in relatively short order — either privatize air traffic control or set up a separate government corporation that can run the system.
Advocates of privatization, or at least separation of the service f
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