So much for progress.

Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta, says that thanks to air traffic delays, it now takes longer to fly certain routes (such as New York to Atlanta) than it did in the 1950s. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy admits there are often no replacement parts for the decades-old equipment in air traffic towers. He compares the system to a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle and has announced a multibillion program to upgrade the system.

Aviation expert Robert Poole notes that well-managed, well-funded ATC systems in Australia, Canada, Germany and the U.K. have long used a nonprofit, user-funded model.  Internationally, 98 countries today provide ATC services that way. The U.S. is an outlier in still using a top-down, government-run system.

It’s been 30 years since then-Vice President Al Gore led a federal task force on “reinventing government” that called for a new air traffic control model. That still hasn’t happened.

It’s time to bring in the experts from SpaceX and DOGE to help the Federal Aviation Administration improve air safety and reduce flight delays. It’s the only way we will be able to Make Aviation Great Again.