Air Travelers Assn. backs Obama for president

Can Barack Obama make travel easier (and safer) for airline passengers? David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association (ATA), who was selected to be the airline passenger-consumer representative on the New York Aviation Rulemaking Committee, announced that he and the ATA are endorsing Obama for president.

Stempler hopes that Obama can get the GPS-based NextGen air traffic control system approved by Congress and quickly implemented throughout the United States. While it is unclear who or how many people make up the ATA, the thought of any and all presidential candidates adding air traffic modernization to their list of causes is encouraging.

NextGen is the Federal Aviation Administration’s current plan to update the National Airspace System. It claims that the proposed satellite-based air traffic management program would accommodate two to three times the traffic levels of the current 40-year-old, ground-based, voice-driven technology.

According to the FAA, pilots and air traffic controllers would receive more detailed information (especially real-time traffic data from satellites about where planes are in relation to other aircraft and obstructions), safety would be improved and noise and emissions would also be reduced.

The FAA is updating its progress reports and has a video explaining the NextGen system and ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) on its website.

Related Links:

FAA, traffic controllers fight over future of U.S. air safety
Fliers pay the FAA — but have little say

— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel Deal Blogger

[Photo: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times]

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 7, 2008 at 4:58 pm by Jen Leo and is filed under Business Travel, Frequent Flier, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.