Just about every other country in the world has a privatized air traffic system ... Germany, England, Canada all have partially or fully privatized air traffic control systems. In Canada, it paved the way for a wholesale modernization of air traffic control technology while also reducing costs and massively reducing red tape. http://www.navcanada.ca/en/Pages/default.aspx No system is going to be perfect, but international observers have said for decades that the American system is clunky and flirting with disaster. Like everything the government does, it's inefficient and clogged by bureaucracy. We've been lucky nothing has happened, but we should remember that on 911, one man had to make a decision outside of the bureaucracy because he couldn't find anyone in the government to take responsibility. Google Ben Sliney. He acted like a private sector employee, able to think autonomously and that made all the difference. We need that to be the rule rather than the exception.