The Trump administration wants to turn over air traffic control at US airports to private business.

"Today we're proposing to take American air travel into the future, finally," President Trump said.

The nation's air traffic control system was designed when far fewer people flew, Trump said, calling it "stuck, painfully, in the past." He also called the system "ancient, broken, antiquated" and "horrible" and said his reforms would make it safer and more reliable.

"Guided by legislation that has been proposed in the past by House Transportation Committee chairman Bill Shuster, a private, non-profit corporation would be created to operate, manage and control ATC nationwide, similar to what Canada does. The FAA would still have some oversight capacity, but a board made up mostly of representatives of the major airlines would govern this corporation," reported NPR.

The group Flyers' Rights opposes the plan, saying that it amounts to "handing the airlines (for free) control over a core public asset, and providing them nearly unbridled power to extract new fees and increased taxes from passengers."

Other countries including Australia, Germany, New Zealand, and Switzerland also have privatized air traffic control.

http://www.npr.org/2017/06/05/531574945/trump-announces-plan-to-privatize-air-traffic-control