Airlines for America (A4A), the industry trade organization for the leading U.S. airlines, congratulates President-Elect Donald Trump on his historic election as the 45th president of the United States. As noted in his acceptance speech and during his campaign, Trump’s $1 trillion plan to improve infrastructure is a first 100 days priority and recognized as a growth engine for creating high-paying, skilled jobs that move our economy forward.
“We look forward to working with the Transition Team on strengthening our infrastructure in the sky to meet the nation’s growing demands on the ground,” said A4A President and CEO Nicholas E. Calio. “The current U.S. Air Traffic Control (ATC) system, while safe, is an inefficient relic of the 1940s. We’re eager to work with President-Elect Trump to transform it to reduce delays for the 2.2 million passengers and 50,000 tons of cargo that fly every day, while accommodating future growth and demand for travel and shipping.”
The U.S. airline industry supports 10 million jobs and drives 5 percent of the total U.S. economy each day. It connects people and goods to the global economy in a way no other industry can.
“Our ability to create more jobs and help fuel economic growth is possible only if we’re operating within a National Airspace (NAS) infrastructure that is designed for the future,” Calio said. “Our vision for a modernized NAS includes reforming the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system so that politics don’t impede hiring and training more air traffic controllers and equipping our facilities with technology used by more than 50 countries around the world. We want to see a reliable ATC funding model – funded by the system users, not political gamesmanship – so that we can plan for the long-term capital improvements the system needs to grow.”
