Originally published at: ‘Big Beautiful Bill’s’ Air Traffic Control Overhaul Advances - AVweb
Proposed center closures included in legislation’s ATC reforms and upgrades.
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You can bet the ARTCCs to be closed will be in blue states!
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Best Guess#1. Here are the 10 ARTCCs likely targeted for consolidation:
- ZAB – Albuquerque
- ZLC – Salt Lake City
- ZOB – Cleveland
- ZID – Indianapolis
- ZKC – Kansas City
- ZME – Memphis
- ZMP – Minneapolis
- ZHU – Houston
- ZJX – Jacksonville
- ZOA – Oakland
That last one ZOA, would ignite union fights and a federal-vs.-California political storm.
And ZLA? It’s complicated. Let’s just say Sacramento won’t sit quietly.
Best guess #2: Where does it all go? Fort Worth or San Antonio, central, cheap land, political support.
Consolidating into one “Supercenter” could mean 40% of U.S. enroute air traffic handled from a single point. A lotta eggs in one basket.
Projected full rollout: Not before 2033. Maybe.
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Not a great idea to consolidate. There was a similar plan about 15 years ago and it was wisely rejected. Although rare entire centers have gone offline in the past. There are plans in place for adjacent centers to take over the air space. I’ve seen it happen from the inside, and during the initial scramble it it not always pretty for even small sections of airspace. Besides if you want to attract more controllers, keeping it regional I think is best. Different people want to live in different areas.
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Most Centers were built during the Cold War and were designed with survival in mind. Many were located about an hour’s drive from major metropolitan cities and were built to continue directing military air traffic in the event of a nuclear strike on those cities. Most buildings originally had protective lead walls and window shutters, a flowing pool of water on the roof to remove radioactive fallout, and an underground bunker for continued operation.
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“Aviation industry advocates such as the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) have lauded the legislation for the steps taken to revitalize air traffic control. “We thank the Senate for recognizing with this initial funding that a safe and efficient national airspace requires a robust, resilient ATC system that bolsters our nation’s global aviation leadership,” NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen said in a statement.”
No doubt Ed Bolen’s contract includes a long term nursing care plan, so he’ll be covered as will all the legislators who voted for this Big Beautiful Bill. But my guess is almost no-one else is paying attention to the ramifications of this bill on their own personal future, let alone on that of their neighbors. The immorality of this bill conceived by this administration and passed by this congress is in full view for anyone with open eyes to see regardless of how well it may bode for NBAA’s constituency.
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Oh my gosh! Dream on. What was that first date offered recently for so many improvements to take place, 2028? And this, having been an FAAer for many years, I cannot conceive how much planning would be required to even begin. And who will be the staff of knowledgeable planners and with the final say. Then the logistics and contracts. And then the lost interest and money gone. But each new leader has to make a bold new statement until they’re gone and the next steps up with their bold idea. Better to take some small steps to get anything actually accomplished.
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ARTCC consolidation appears efficient on the surface but potentially creates a wide range of problems. Relocating controllers is easier said than done, most are dug in. A major weather event can wipe out the consolidated center unless its’s underground, good luck with that. A coordinated attack on a consolidated center, well you know the impact. And the list goes on.
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There’s no way to pronounce the acronym for “The Big Beautiful Bill” without it sounding like a raspberry, which pretty-much describes its authors’ contempt for the people of America.
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I could not agree more. Well put! (BTW, my wife’s license plate is “AV8RX” 
).
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One of the reasons politicians love these 900 page long bills is that it allows them to sneak in provisions that would otherwise never get passed on their own merits. I can pretty well guarantee you that no one really knows what all has been hidden in this behemoth. Unfortunately, none of them really care either, so long as their little slice of pork has made it through. For example, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted for the bill, even though she opposed several parts of it. When asked why she voted for it, she replied that it “Took care of her Alaskan constituents”. In other words, she doesn’t give a damn about the rest of the country so long as her peeps are happy and will vote to reelect her. Considering Donald Trump’s penchant for diverting funds from less visible projects to pay for his little pet goodies (remember the missile funds diverted to his “Big Beautiful Airplane” project?), I would not be surprised if some of the money for ATC modernization winds up going to the border wall or his private flying palace. Caveat emptor!
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Regardless of your political persuasion, this bill is horrible ,unless of course you are one of the 83 multi billionaires! But then you probably wouldn’t be answering or reading about this! Hopefully this can all turn around in the midterms or definitely when this administration self-destructs
Clever!
My nom-de-net is a reference to the fact that for most of my career in large mainframe systems, I used, supported, and was on the ANSI Standard committee for an elegant programming language named REXX.
From a deficit standpoint, this tanks the economy just as much as the Green New Deal.
Does anyone care how close we are to becoming Greece? And there’s no one who will bail us out.
“But I never thought the leopards would eat MY face!” sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.
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The real air traffic controller sits in a front seat of the aircraft. He is called a pilot. The remote controller’s job is not to control traffic, but to see that the pilots are given the information necessary to do that. With the computer capacity of a smart watch, GPS and ADS-B can provide all of that directly, without third party interference and error. The precise location and second derivative (full state vector) provided by an aircraft GPS chip is better than any ground-based system can provide, including current plans to replace radar with it. Call it “2-minute conflict warning & resolution” instead of CAS or something else, but recognize the facts. AND, there is no loss of controller jobs. With ground computers monitoring most airspace, pilot non-response to warnings would alert controllers who would then get on the radio as backup. Then they could get back to their less stressful and legitimate job of air traffic management of tens of thousands of flights into thousands of airports. Now would be the ideal time to build a real Free Airspace Management System (FAMS).
The FAA couldn’t pull off moving some of Newark’s airspace and controllers to Philly. How could anyone think they could consolidate all of their Centers into one or two super facilities?
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Look what happened to the Flight Service Stations.
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@CD239
Actually, it’s mostly Red states getting the axe. Centers like ZLC (Salt Lake), ZME (Memphis), ZKC (Kansas City), ZHU (Houston), ZFW (Fort Worth), all in Red territory, are on the hit list. ZAB (Albuquerque) may be in a Blue city, but it covers mostly Red airspace.
This isn’t about cutting back Blue states. It’s Red states losing the most.
Roughly 1,430 FAA staff in Red states are affected compared to 620 in Blue states. That’s more than twice the hit. Jobs gone. Local control gone. Safety oversight thinned out.
Red states are getting cut out, by the same people they trusted to protect them.