Contract control towers: a threat to the system?

Once the ATC system began to recover from the 1981 Professional Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) strike and the demand for services once more began to rise,

By AIN Staff • AIN Staff

January 21, 2008

Once the ATC system began to recover from the 1981 Professional Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) strike and the demand for services once more began to rise, the FAA seized an opportunity to partner with the private sector for those badly needed services and created the Federal Contract Tower (FCT) program in an attempt to save bundles of cash and manpower. In 1993, Vice President Al Gore’s National Performance Review endorsed the FCT as an effective means of reinventing government services. Today, private companies taking part in the contract tower program operate 218 ATC towers using approximately 1,200 controllers. By FAA estimates, the government saves approximately $250,000 per tower per year over what it would have cost the agency to run the same facility.

Although PATCO died in 1981, a new union–the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA)– eventually rose from the ashes of that shattered labor organization and today stands much smarter and considerably more politically aware than its predecessor, representing all 15,000 of the FAA’s air traffic controllers, as well as controllers at 34 contract towers. A new version of PATCO also represents another 34 additional contract towers.

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