It also strongly supports the investment plan for 14,000 air traffic controllers, presented by Transport Secretary Duffy a month ago.

Today, the president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), Ed Bolen, delivered a compelling message to the legislators of the US House Aviation Subcommittee regarding the “national imperative” to reform the country's Air Traffic Control (ATC) infrastructure in order to maintain safety within the world’s most complex airspace network.

In his testimony during the hearing titled “FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024: stakeholder perspectives on Implementation One Year Later", Bolen thanked lawmakers for their diligence last year in passing a robust, forward-looking, and comprehensive reauthorization bill, while emphasizing that much work still remains.

“We must ensure the implementation of the reauthorization bill and urgently need massive investment in the management system of our national airspace", he stated. “The good news is that, under this committee’s strong oversight, government and industry are moving forward on both priorities".

Bolen also expressed strong support for the ATC investment package proposed by the Administration, detailed in a plan unveiled last month by Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. “By the end of 2028, the plan envisions a human resources investment that will provide the United States with over 14,000 highly trained and qualified air traffic controllers, along with significant upgrades to facilities and equipment", affirmed the NBAA president. A broad range of aviation stakeholders—including airlines, General Aviation (GA) associations, airports, and unions—have joined the “Modern Skies” coalition to support these critically important investments.

Equally important, Bolen noted that the coalition remains opposed to ATC privatization, which would distract from effective strategies for modernizing the aviation system. “This opposition includes any attempts to model the US system after the overvalued and dramatically underperforming models seen in Canada and the United Kingdom", he asserted. He also highlighted efforts made by the business aviation community to further enhance the sector’s already very high safety levels which, despite recent high-profile incidents, continue a thirty-year downward trend in fatal accidents.

“The business aviation community works hard not only to be safe but to be perceived as such", he said, underscoring NBAA’s support for initiatives such as the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) program and the National Pause for General Aviation Safety—a voluntary, industry-wide initiative promoting the sharing of best safety practices across all types of general aviation operations. Bolen also identified other critical safety improvements, including a review of the US NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) system to prioritize the most essential information for flight crews; greater use of data sharing to continuously refine safety training; a renewed commitment to a just culture framework for incident evaluation; and the ongoing adoption and implementation of Safety Management Systems (SMS) tailored to the specific needs of each flight operation.

“America has the safest, largest, most diverse, and most efficient aviation system in the world", concluded Bolen. “However, the system is under stress, which increases risk and reduces efficiency. The NBAA stands ready to collaborate with Congress and the FAA to maintain and enhance safety in air transportation and to ensure that the United States remains the global leader in aviation".