Private and Corporate Jets Will Continue to Grow
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| The Honda Jet VLJ |
The next ten years will see radical changes in the makeup of the ATC system user group. While passenger and cargo airlines dominated the skies for the better part of the 20th century, new entrants such as Very Light Jets (VLJs), supersonic aircraft priced within reach of a wider market, and unmanned aerial vehicles will enter the national aviation system in the 21st century.
FAA’s forecast indicates that general aviation jets will be the fastest growing segment of aviation between 2006 and 2016, flying an increasing number of hours each year. This amounts to an average annual growth rate greater than 10 percent. The FAA's forecast also envisions the introduction of roughly 9,000 new business jets during that time period.
Passenger and Cargo airlines on the other hand are expected to grow at a rate of less than three percent.
The Challenge of New Aircraft Types
FAA has previously faced the challenge of integrating new aircraft types into the pre-existing ATC system. In the late 1950s, the dawn of the jet age required FAA to accommodate much faster-moving aircraft, like the Boeing 707, into the national aviation system. Though FAA has been successful with past integrations, the latest generation of aircraft represent new challenges that are not analogous to the 707 experience. Though the 707 moved much faster than existing traffic, it also flew at a significantly higher altitude than its predecessors. This put the faster moving new jets in their own space above lower and slower traffic.
Unlike the 707, new VLJ entrants will likely fly at the same altitudes as other aircraft, but at lower speeds. Whether they fly to large airports or small airports VLJ use of terminal airspace in congested metropolitan areas will drive FAA costs and delays.
Though this new integration represents a challenge, it is not an insurmountable one. FAA faces a critical choice; it can place limits on new growth in order to maintain the efficiency of the ATC system, or it can grow the system to accommodate increased demand. The nation’s airlines believe a scalable, growth-oriented system is the only reasonable solution.
Paying for A Next-Generation System
The fundamental flaw with today’s taxation and funding system is that it fails to connect what an aircraft user pays with FAA’s true cost to provide service. Since today’s ATC system is funded primarily through airline ticket taxes and segment fees, many new users will not adequately pay for the services they consume. The increase in FAA's workload, combined with the fact that many of these additional flights will under-compensate FAA for the real costs they impose on the ATC system leads to a funding problem. How can FAA grow the system to accommodate new types of aircraft and increasing numbers of non-airline users if those users do not adequately pay for the ATC services they use?
By switching from today’s illogical funding system to a cost-based system, we can ensure that FAA has the ability and money to transition to a next-generation ATC system; one that will support all types of aircraft into the future.