WASHINGTON – The government should help airlines install billions of dollars’ worth of equipment in their planes necessary to use a new air traffic control system through loans or loan guarantees, an industry-government advisory committee recommended Thursday.
Repayment of the loans, which could involve public-private partnerships, would be triggered by the Federal Aviation Administration achieving promised benefits from the new system, the committee said.
The financing recommendation was one of a half dozen related to FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System — also called NextGen — that were approved at a meeting of the committee.
The FAA is replacing World War II-era radar technology with a control system based on GPS technology, a process that is expected to take more than a decade to complete. The agency says planes will be able to safely fly closer together, reducing flying time, saving fuel and achieving better on-time performance. The program is forecast to be
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