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When Bryan Bedford, then Republic Airways CEO, arrived at the White House early last year to interview for administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, he was asked by President Donald Trump if he had ever stepped foot in the Oval Office.
“I said, well yes, Mr. President, I have,” Bedford recalled during an industry event last year, telling Trump he was there “the last time you announced you wanted to do airspace modernization.” Bedford said the President “chuckled” and admitted “we blew it that time,” referring to his failed attempt to privatize the U.S. air traffic control system in 2017. According to Bedford, Trump added: “We can’t let that happen again.”
Related: The ‘brand new’ ATC system might not be as new as you think
Much is different about today’s effort to modernize the system, namely widespread support of the administration’s plan as well as an intentional deference to industry to oversee nearly all of the on-the-ground work. By selecting national security contractor Peraton as a “prime integrator” for the build-out of the “Brand New” Air Traffic Control System (BNATCS), the FAA said it is delegating responsibility to a company with project management expertise the agency simply does not have.
Peraton is now the nucleus of one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects the FAA has ever attempted, aiming to leverage its experience converting other government agencies from analog to digital systems. Yet the company, which has previously done only limited work for the FAA, has also accepted an immense amount of political, financial and reputational risk should it repeat the failures of major government modernization projects of the past.
“I want one bid … and they’re responsible for everything,” Trump said at a White House event in October. “In the end, if one of them does a bad job we want to be able to blame somebody.”
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