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CNN Sunday Morning
Congress Hopes to Solve Airline Travel Problems
Aired May 20, 2001 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour with the fast approaching summer travel season and airline delays. The Travel Industry Association estimates 230 million Americans will travel during the summer months. Many of them will be flying. But airline delays and air traffic congestion could make reaching your destination on time a mere illusion.
The Bush administration is taking a closer look at a controversial plan to privatize the air traffic control system to ease delays.
As CNN's Patty Davis reports critics hope the plan never gets off the ground.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With no end in sight to airline delays as the summer travel season gets underway, Congress is searching for solutions. The nation's air traffic controllers lobbied on Capitol Hill this week against what they say is not the answer, privatizing the government run air traffic control system.
JOHN CARR, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: We think it's unsafe. We think it's not prudent. It adds no value to the system. It will not address delays.
DAVIS: The air traffic controllers are worried about plans in President Bush's 2002 budget to take a closer look at privatization in two-dozen countries. Robert Pool of Privatization Advocate, who has counseled the Bush administration says it works.
ROBERT POOL, FOUNDER, REASON FOUNDATION: If you go anywhere this summer and sit for hours and hours in an airport of airlines due to the aircraft control system being -- not working right, I think you've got to believe that something better than that is possible. And that something exists in a lot of other countries now.
DAVIS: Since Canada sold its air traffic control system to a private company five years ago productivity has increased 30 percent. Airline costs have fallen 35 percent and Canada's airlines says delays are down. But Canada's air traffic controllers say the gains have come at a price, safety as controllers work longer hours. FUZZ BHIMJI, PRESIDENT, CANADIAN AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL ASSOCIATION: The privatization has exacerbated the working conditions. In other words, induced more fatigue in the scheduling because there's a lot more being demanded of the controllers.
DAVIS: So far the U.S. air traffic controllers have two powerful allies, the major airlines and the Transportation Secretary. They've also launched a T.V. ad campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, TELEVISION COMMERCIAL)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Selling the system out to the highest bidder is a Band-Aid fix, and it won't work here.
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DAVIS: They argue building more runways would do the most to reduce delays and congestion by increasing capacity.
(on camera): But advocates say privatization is a quicker fix, not only solving delays in three to four years, but freeing up more money to upgrade the air traffic system.
Patty Davis, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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