Reply #62: I'm not dignifying your mass hypnosis statement with a thoughtful [View All]

[MercutioATC]

response.

As far as the FAA being broken, I agree wholeheartedly. NATCA, the controllers' union and the IG have been saying this for years. The FAA has recently (within the last 2 years) been put under a new system in an attempt to streamline the operation and fix its problems.

Russ Chew, the new CEO of the ATO (Air Traffic Organization) is working to, among other things, reduce the number of "levels" in the air traffic portion of the FAA from 11 to 6. This move alone will save a considerable amount of money and result in a more flexible operation that is better able to deal with issues and serve the customer.

What many fail to realize is that the FAA is a large organization. I'm a controller, so I have a pretty good understanding of the ATO. The other divisions of the FAA have nothing to do with what I do for a living and operate as their own entities, for the most part. To draw a parallel with the private sector, the FAA is a large corporation. ATO makes car parts. Other divisions make computers, process medical claims and market baby food. We're all distinct divisions that deal with aviation, but in very different ways.

The only constant that I've seen is that the inefficiencies nearly always exist at the upper management level. The employees who actually do the work are generally extremely dedicated people who want the system to work.

Nothing I've seen points to real corruption in the FAA, just a lot of bad decisions and the inevitable lack of efficiency you get when dealing with any large bureaucracy.