Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

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Against the Wind
A concrete solution: NATCA President
John Carr, center, and Capt. Andy Deane,
an Air Line Pilots Association member, appeared
in a television commercial in 2001
to convey the message that lack of runway
capacity causes flight delays. / NATCA archives
2001
24
May
part of a public relations campaign that shifted the
focus away from the FAA.
“For anyone under the mistaken impression
that you can add limitless demand to a finite system,
I’ve got a news flash for you—you can’t,” Carr contended.
“Fifty miles of concrete poured at the twentyfive
busiest airports would do more for this country’s
aviation needs than privatization ever will.”
Working with Hill & Knowlton, a worldwide PR
firm, NATCA also produced commercials for CNN’s
Airport Network and ran print ads in AOPA Pilot, Roll
The FAA selects Lockheed Martin Corporation to upgrade the agency’s
Anchorage, New York, and Oakland oceanic control centers. Lockheed’s
system, which is used by privately run Airways New Zealand, will elimi-
Call, and elsewhere to educate the public
about privatization and other air traffic
control issues. The union also created toy
Beanie planes named Roger and Journey
to distribute to members of Congress
during NATCA in Washington.
As the union’s PR campaign gathered
steam, the ATA, a trade group representing
twenty-two domestic airlines
and five international carriers, toned
down its attacks on the FAA and supported
NATCA. ATA President Carol
Hallett also distanced the association
from Poole’s privatization proposal and
acknowledged the need for infrastructure
improvements.
“We must now set real, achievable
priority targets to rapidly address system
inadequacies,” she said. “What we do not need
is another protracted debate among academics and
theoreticians about the merits of a privately run air
traffic control system.” 4
Cataclysm on September 11
Rumblings over privatization and traffic delays
vanished—at least temporarily—in the thick, ominous
smoke that billowed from four plane crashes on
September 11, 2001.
nate the need for controllers to use paper strips and track oceanic flights
with grease pencils on Plexiglas charts. Such rudimentary tools have been
in use since the 1930s.