Transcripts

Our Air Traffic Control System Gets An Upgrade

PAUL KANGAS: Defense contractor ITT has landed the first major contract to upgrade the nation's aging air traffic control system. That contract is worth $1.8 billion contract over 18 years. The Federal Aviation Administration hopes the new satellite-based system will help reduce congestion, which reached record levels this summer. But as Darren Gersh reports, it'll likely be several years before passengers see the improvements.

DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: The new satellite- based air traffic control system will be far more accurate than existing radar, tracking planes to within a few meters. That means planes can fly safely closer together, allowing for faster takeoffs and landings. The Air Transport Association's Basil Barimo says the new technology will relieve airport overcrowding and keep ticket prices down.

BASIL BARIMO, VP OPERATIONS AND SAFETY, AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION: As that demand increases, the system can respond and meet that demand and insure that passengers have choices to go to the destinations that they seek at a price that's affordable.

GERSH: The new, automatic dependent surveillance broadcast system -- ADSB for short -- will also be able to see through clouds, easing weather delays. But first, private pilots and commercial airlines will have to buy expensive new equipment and the National Business Aviation Association's Ed Bolen argues it won't eliminate delays on the ground.

ED BOLEN, CEO, NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION: What we are seeing at our nations biggest, most congested airports, most delay prone airports is a lack of runway space and a lack of commercial airplane gates.

GERSH: The bill for modernizing the FAA is expected to top $15 billion and that has touched off a dogfight in Washington. Big airlines and corporate jet operators are fighting over who is clogging up the existing system and who should pay more to fix it. In the end, aviation expert Clifford Winston expects ADSB will provide only temporary relief as demand for air travel continues to grow.

CLIFFORD WINSTON, TRANSPORTATION ANALYST, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: In which case there is only one thing really one can do to deal with the problem of congestion and that is to price the peak travel periods in such a way that aircraft take account of the delay that they impose on other aircraft.

GERSH: The FAA's track record in implementing new technologies is also not a good one. Efforts to update the existing radar tracking system went billions over budget and ran years late. Darren Gersh, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Washington.