Who’s Been Sleeping In My Bed ?

It is said that politics makes strange bedfellows.

ATA Sues FAA To Stop Newark Slot Auction Plan

”ATA filed suit today in the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia, seeking to preclude FAA from carrying out the auction plan, which it claims is illegal since the "slots are not FAA property and cannot be auctioned by FAA," court documents said.“

I don’t claim it’s illegal (it might be) -- I just claim it’s stupid.

”DOT said it plans to use the funds generated from the auction "to reduce delays and enhance capacity at New York-area airports." “

There’s that “and” thing again. The way to reduce delays is to reduce the number of landing slots allocated at the airport. No ifs, “and”s or buts. (That “thunk !” you just heard was the ATA falling out of my bed.) The only thing that is going to enhance capacity is runways. Where are you going to build a runway at LaGuardia ? Okay, maybe if you spend $20 billion dollars on NexGen and get every airliner in the fleet equipped with synthetic vision you might increase the capacity by one or two airplanes per hour. Maybe. In 20 years.

While we’re here with the ATA (that’s the Air Transport Association by the way), let’s take a look at this story (from CNN Money) too.

Air Transport Association spent more than $2.2 million lobbying government in second quarter

”The group lobbied on issues including airline passenger rights, air transportation financing reform and Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization, according to the form posted online July 21 by the House clerk's office.“

I assume you noticed that it didn’t say the ATA was lobbying for passenger rights. But don’t let me get off on a tangent. I have some friends that always want me to believe that unions are oh-so powerful. Shoot, they have as much power as businesses. Not. Let’s compare.

Report: NATCA Spent Over $300K Lobbying Gov't In Q1

”NATCA spent nearly $1.3 million in lobbying activities in all of 2007, according to the Associated Press.“

NATCA, as you may recall, had this little problem last year -- they didn’t have a labor contract. I didn’t take the time to check it out but I suspect last year was a record for NATCA on the amount of money spent. Yet the ATA spent almost twice as much in one quarter as NATCA spent in an entire year.

In that we’re talking about power (and money is power) here -- that is the name of this game-- bleed the union dry. It might not have occurred to those not involved in a labor union that dues are tied to the member’s wages. Cut starting wages by 30% and you’ve cut union dues. Get rid of the older (better paid) controllers, replace them with starting workers and it’s like getting compound interest on your savings.

There’s one other thing while we’re here. And I can use the CNN Money story and The Aero-News Network again as sources.

From the CNN Money story:

”Among those registered to lobby on behalf of the ATA were: Clint Fisher, formerly of the Transportation Department among other federal positions; Sharon Pinkerton, who used to work for Rep. John Mica, R-Fla.;... “

Did any of my readers do as I’ve suggested before and look up the names ? Did you Google Sharon Pinkerton ? I did.

From a different story on The Aero-News Network:

”It could be a shot in the arm for those who theorize the FAA and the ATA are in collusion over the issue of user fees. The Air Transport Association (ATA) announced Friday that former FAA assistant adminstrator Sharon L. Pinkerton has been named the organization's vice president of government affairs. “

You do remember Representative John Mica don’t you ?

When you get through reading Mica’s link go back and read Sunday’s post -- That’s Two at Memphis.

I could provide these links all day but I’m tired now. I’m going to go crawl into my bed -- after I change the sheets.

Don Brown
August 12, 2008