Welcome aboard, and thank you for choosing Continental Airlines for your flight today. Across the United States, more than 45,000 flights are operated each day, including more than 3,100 by Continental, Continental Express, and Continental Connection. The U.S. air traffic control (ATC) system, which manages the flow of these aircraft, is one of the safest in the world and has served the country well for decades.
However, demand for aviation has never been higher, and it continues to grow. Unfortunately, the infrastructure of our ATC system has not kept pace with this growth and is stretched beyond capacity, as evidenced by increased congestion and delays. The future of our industry depends on a modern air traffic control system that can safely and efficiently accommodate future demand and that will be adequately funded with a cost-based user-funded system.
Plans for such a system, known as the Next Generation Air Transportation System, or “NextGen,” are being developed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). With accurate, satellite-based positioning information, NextGen will provide better information about aircraft movements than is currently available from ground-based radar. This technology should make it possible to safely achieve capacity and efficiency improvements while significantly reducing aircraft emissions and noise.
Continental supports the full liberalization of global air travel, but the realization of this vision requires a modern, globally harmonized ATC system like NextGen. NextGen, which will require significant financial investments for short-term day-to-day operations and long-term technology requirements, is in turn contingent upon the establishment of a sustainable funding structure that allocates the costs of the system to its users fairly. Today’s funding formula fails to link the ATC system’s cost with the price it charges users. For years, commercial airlines and their passengers have been subsidizing corporate and private jets, which have grown in number from 1,800 in 1970 to 18,000 in 2007.
The U.S. aviation community is looking to Congress to act quickly to support NextGen and to establish an equitable, cost-based, user-funded mechanism to support ATC system operations and modernization. The current funding formulas are not acceptable because commercial aircraft passengers should no longer subsidize the corporate jets’ use of the system, as they do today. All those who use the system must pay their fair share to modernize that system and keep it safe. However, since they typically do not use the ATC system in the same way, piston-powered airplanes should not be subject to a new tax in order to fund NextGen. And those who operate the system must be subject to improved governance and oversight to ensure that the users’ money is well invested to help the system grow safely and efficiently.
Those who use the air traffic control system must pay for the system — this is a simple but fair principle that warrants the support of the aviation community and Congress. We also look to Congress to take bold steps to use a portion of the funds for future capital investments in technology for the FAA. We must begin the reform process now if we want U.S. aviation to continue to grow and support a vibrant world economy.
In closing this month, I would like to again turn my thanks to my more than 44,000 co-workers who always work hard to ensure our customers’ safety and satisfaction, no matter what the challenge. In Continental Notebook, you can read about one of our outstanding employees, Boeing 737 Captain Ray-Sean Silvera, a pilot who visits students to talk about never giving up on their dreams. On behalf of Captain Silvera and the entire Continental team, thank you again for flying with us today.
Larry Kellner
Chairman and CEO
Continental Airlines
