Interesting: in America, a tentative proposal to split air-traffic-control services from the faa into a separate entity, as in the rest of the developed world, was last year grounded in Congress. Although big airlines, airports and controller unions supported the proposals, the business-aviation lobby opposed them, worried that private jets might eventually be forced to pay for the air-traffic services they currently get free, thanks to American taxpayers.
Aviation fuel taxes currently pay for ATC funding to a large degree. It’s more nuanced than a bunch of private planes congesting the skies not paying their fair share.
One of my biggest concerns about a privatized system is the effects it could have on the bottom end of general aviation. The very low end of people flying around in small Cessnas tends to be more cost sensitive. What happens to safety when they start acting in ways to avoid ATC fees in order to keep flying?
Can I just say that the privatized ATC in Europe has very little affect on smaller GA planes. Maastrich generally controls 1000ASL and above which is much higher than the typical Cessna will fly.
Is that feet or meters? Because 1000 feet ASL was the altitude at which it was mandatory for me to start preparing for landing in a glider. 1000m ASL is perfectly normal altitude, unless you're purposefully avoiding ATC interaction by staying under 300m which is dangerous.
In flight speak height is measured in 100s of feet and distance in nautical miles. For example a 747 will reach cruising altitude at FL370 (37000ft) but another plane may be FL360 (36000ft).
"Flight speak" depends on multiple details that are not always obvious. For example, "feets" for altitude are "temporary allowance" and in many places are used only because of the influx of cheap US-made hardware.
Flight Levels are actually not specified in meters nor feet, but in air pressure, so that if everyone has altimeters on the same "zero" pressure they will be able to communicate their flight level perfectly.
Nautical Miles are used because unlike feet, they actually make sense.
Fee to get a weather brief? Guess I’ll skip that today. Fee to file a flight plan? Guess I’ll skip that and nobody will know where I am when I don’t show up at my destination. Fee to talk to ATC? Guess I’ll just stay low altitude weaving in and out of clouds. Hope there aren’t any towers or traffic.
You can see where avoiding fees might lead to taking greater risks.
