A few days ago Wendover Productions released a video that takes a London to Frankfurt flight as an example to show how air traffic control works. Maastricht Upper Area mentioned in the article is where most of the flight takes place. Video link: <a href="https://youtu.be/C1f2GwWLB3k?t=8" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/C1f2GwWLB3k?t=8</a>
> old systems can't cope<p>Actually "old systems" aren't the bottleneck.<p>It's limited gates and radio frequency time.<p>And those will be less of a problem after 1/3 of aircraft turn into pumpkins when they "forget" to do the mandatory ADS-B installation this year.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillance_%E2%80%93_broadcast" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillan...</a>
These vested interest blocks are mostly based around airlines who pay fuel taxes for these systems and would like all of ATC to move from government to contractors.<p>Currently, the FAA does a lot of work to make sure that the pilots of smaller, older aircraft can still use the system well.
Interesting: in America, a tentative proposal to split air-traffic-control services from the faa into a separate entity, as in the rest of the developed world, was last year grounded in Congress. Although big airlines, airports and controller unions supported the proposals, the business-aviation lobby opposed them, worried that private jets might eventually be forced to pay for the air-traffic services they currently get free, thanks to American taxpayers.