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Deregulation of the U.S. Airline Industry Essay example

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Deregulation of the U.S. airline industry has resulted in ticket prices dropping by a third, on an inflation-adjusted basis. As a result some 1.6 million people fly on 4,000 aircraft every day. Airlines carried 643 million passengers in 1998, a 25% increase over 1993 and the FAA estimates that the nation¡¦s airline system will have to accommodate 917 million passengers by the year 2008. The growth in air travel threatens to overwhelm the presently inadequate air traffic control system, which has not kept pace with available technology in navigation, communications, and flight surveillance. Much of the equipment used for air traffic control today is based on fifty-year-old technology; for example, analog simplex voice links for …show more content…

On March 11, 1999, the FAA released the NAS Architecture Version 4.0 to the public. Key influences on the architecture include the 1996 White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, which recommended that the FAA accelerate modernization of the NAS, and the 1997 National Civil Aviation Review Commission, which recommended funding and performance management methods for implementing NAS modernization. It describes the agency¡¦s modernization strategy from 1998 through 2015. Based on the Free Flight operational concept, Version 4.0 contains capabilities, technologies, and systems to enhance the safety of the aviation system and provide users and service providers with more efficient services. Free Flight centers on allowing pilots, whenever practical, to choose the optimum flight profile. This concept of operations is expected to decrease user costs, improve airspace flexibility, and remove flight restrictions.

The NAS Architecture is divided into three modernization phases and its implementation is being synchronized with the International Civil Aviation Organization to ensure interoperability and global integration.
„h Phase 1 (1998-2002) focuses on sustaining essential air traffic control services and delivering early user benefits. Free Flight Phase 1 will be implemented. Controller computer workstations will begin major upgrades. Satellite-based navigation systems will be deployed, and

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