Why Is Air Traffic Control the Bottleneck for Airlines?

Scott Kirby says air traffic control, not airport capacity, is what limits the airline. He puts air traffic control at 90% of the problem. Modernizing it can be done. The block is paying for a project that takes five to ten years with a budget that lasts one year.

A shutdown often means the money arrives two months into the fiscal year. The agency then spends about three months ramping up, about four months working, and the last three months shutting the project down, because the authorization does not run past twelve months. Kirby calls that cycle absurd.

The airlines would pay for the work if they were allowed to. He thinks a private effort could finish the job in two to three years. Privatizing the FAA is politically controversial. Until air traffic control can handle more flights, that system is the cap on how many planes the airlines can add.