Meanwhile, Congress has already made significant reforms so that FAA can implement new technologies more quickly. It has given FAA the tools and management structure so that it can operate more like a business. Through the AIR-21 legislation, enacted last year, Congress has finally guaranteed enough money to fund both ATC improvements and, more importantly, airport improvements. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association believes that we must give these recent reforms a chance to work. We would have explained that the nation's private pilots don't delay airline passengers.
General aviation is less than five percent of the traffic at the most delay-plagued airports.
Just as drivers pay for highways through a gasoline tax, GA pilots pay for what they use through an aviation fuel tax. And it is thanks to the lobbying efforts of AOPA, its 370,000 members and the nation's private pilots that GPS is available to civilian users today.