April 17, 2025
In a recent, wide-ranging interview with the televised “Wall Street Week” program aired on BloombergTV and PBS affiliates nationwide, NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen said strategic investment in technologies to enhance safety- not ATC privatization- are critical to ensuring America’s continued aviation leadership.
View the “Wall Street Week” segment in its entirety on Bloomberg TV.
Bolen’s perspectives come amidst a series of high-profile aviation accidents, including those involving business aviation. The tragic events have called attention to what “Wall Street Week” host David Westin termed an “unsustainable” situation.
The country’s ATC network is “under strain and has long needed an overhaul,” Westin added, despite decades of government and industry calls for improvements to manage ever-growing air traffic levels.
Bolen shared Westin’s assessment, stating: “We know definitively that [the U.S. national airspace system] is the safest, the most efficient, the largest and the most diverse air transportation system in the world. But we need to be investing in the people, the facilities and the equipment to make sure that we are able to continue to respond in a dynamic way.”
Bolen’s analysis was featured alongside viewpoints from other aviation leaders, including former U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Heather Krause, managing director for physical infrastructure at the Government Accountability Office, both of whom agreed with Bolen on the urgent need to bolster ATC staffing and equipment.
Bolen made clear, however, that targeted investments toward continued ATC modernization should not be conflated and confused with ATC privatization – a flawed model that has been beset by a host of well-documented concerns.
“When we look at countries around the world – Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, which have privatized their air traffic control system – we see a number of challenges in terms of their air traffic controllers, their technology, their delays and most importantly, safety issues,” he said.
Bolen’s interview follows a recent letter signed by NBAA and 32 other organizations urging Congress to fund aviation investments, while eschewing ATC privatization.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.