I think it's bullshit and a big waste of money that the government is wasting money on overhauling ATC. Going to GPS and such definitely has its benefits but as any pilot or controller will tell you the problem isn't the routes it's the airports. Before you put an airplane in the sky you have to have a place for it to land. Gates and slots are so tight they are almost inflexible. This creates a network effect of delays in one airport cascades to others. Planes that are late can't be cleaned and boarded so it pushes other planes waiting for the gate to also be delayed.<p>What needs to be abandoned is the hub-spoke airport system. It had it's place in the 80s when computers weren't very powerful but algorithms and processors have improved and route optimizations would be so much better.