Once a signature initiative of President Donald Trump’s first term, the push to privatize the U.S. air traffic control system has all but disappeared from his agenda, even as aviation safety concerns continue to mount.
In 2017, Trump proposed privatizing the U.S. air traffic control (ATC) system by transferring it from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to a nonprofit corporation, a plan that never went anywhere.
Fast forward to 2025, and Trump’s second term has been hit with a wave of aviation incidents, ranging from a deadly crash near Washington’s Reagan National Airport, a string of near misses, and a radar system failure at Newark Liberty International Airport. Such events have triggered fresh alarm over the state of America’s skies.
With safety and oversight under scrutiny, the idea of handing air traffic control to a private entity is once again getting attention, even though members of the Trump administration have been quick to shut it down.
“No, no, no, that’s the political fight that has already happened,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, speaking to reporters in early May. “This is not about separating anybody. We’re all standing together.”
“If someone else, some other secretary, some other administrators, some other CEP, some other unions want to have that fight, once we are done, they can have that fight but I’ll be long gone,” Duffy said.
Duffy recently introduced an ambitious initiative aimed at upgrading the nation’s aging air traffic infrastructure, promising improvements in safety, efficiency, and long-term capacity. Calling on Congress to commit tens of billions of dollars, Duffy warned that the current system is buckling under the weight of obsolete technology, staffing gaps, and worn-down facilities. He projected the modernization effort would span three to four years.
“The issue of our day is that we all stand together and we are going to build a brand new air traffic control system – full stop, we’re not sending, not privatization, we’re not kicking off the system to somebody else. This is all of us standing together to build this infrastructure,” Duffy said.
Chris Edwards, an economist at the Cato Institute, views Duffy’s air traffic modernization plan as a repackaging of past proposals, unlikely to succeed under the current government-run system. A longtime advocate of privatization, Edwards frequently highlights Canada’s model as a compelling alternative. There, air traffic operations are managed by Nav Canada, a nonprofit corporation overseen by a board that includes representatives from airlines, labor unions, and government.
He argues that the United States is rapidly falling behind in deploying next-generation air traffic technology, a troubling shift for the country that once led the world in aviation innovation.
He also criticized Congress for being too cautious, calling them “risk-averse and scared.”
Studies and expert analyses suggest that privatizing air traffic control could save the U.S. government billions over time by cutting bureaucratic overhead, boosting efficiency, and shifting to a more stable funding model based on user fees rather than congressional appropriations.
Rather than overhauling infrastructure, privatization would focus on changing the governance and funding structure. Existing airports and control centers would remain, but operations would be transferred to a nonprofit corporation with the authority to act more nimbly and invest in needed upgrades.
“They’d have more flexibility, and they can make decisions quickly and efficiently,” Edwards explained. “They could replace the government bureaucratic hiring system and salaries and promotion system which are inefficient. With private sector hiring practices, if they needed to hire, they’d have top tier tech talent.”
Despite political setbacks, he believes the idea isn’t going away anytime soon, pointing out the U.S. is falling behind other countries like Canada and Britain, who have more advanced systems, such as satellite-based GPS navigation and remote towers using cameras and infrared vision instead of traditional control towers.
“There’s all these technologies that because these systems are run by government bureaucracy, we’re not getting there,” he said.
A group of 34 aviation organizations urged congressional leaders to focus on long-overdue upgrades to the nation’s air traffic control system and to continue investing in the hiring and training of essential personnel, instead of pursuing privatization in February.
While the letter does not delve into detailed arguments against privatization, it emphasizes that such a move would divert attention and resources from essential investments and reforms needed to modernize the current system.
Opponents of air traffic control privatization argue it would reduce public accountability, favor airline interests over general aviation, and introduce safety and transition risks in an already complex system. They also warn that shifting control to a private board could harm rural access, increase costs for smaller operators, and weaken labor protections.
National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) President and CEO Ed Bolen fiercely expressed his opposition to privatizing the ATC.
“That opposition includes any effort to model the U.S. system on the type of overhyped and dramatically underperforming models in Canada and the United Kingdom,” he said during a U.S. House Aviation Subcommittee this past week.
Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) criticized the FAA bureaucracy for stalling innovation and warned that other countries are outpacing the U.S. in aviation technology during a recent hearing in the Senate.
He said efforts to reform or partner with private industry are often derailed by fears of “privatization,” even though leveraging private partners could help modernize systems, fix staffing shortages, and upgrade airports.
Sheehy asked FAA officials for ideas on how to use private partnerships without triggering political backlash over “privatization.”
FAA officials didn’t address privatization directly but emphasized partnerships with the military and industry to improve training, staffing, and technology adoption. They noted progress in deploying digital communication tools like Data Comm and Controller Pilot Data Link Communications, a system for exchanging text messages between air traffic controllers and pilots.
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During Trump’s first term, many airline executives backed comprehensive air traffic control reform. Today, however, their preference has shifted toward a one-time injection of taxpayer funds. Edwards worries that it could take another tragedy to finally trigger meaningful reform.
“Sometimes changes come during crises, but a lot of bad things have already happened. We’re getting more near misses and this sort of thing in recent years and the skies are getting more crowded,” he said. “What we need is a president to focus on it.”