This bill directs the Department of Transportation (DOT), by six months after completion of a safety risk management panel conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration for the Leesburg, Virginia, project, to establish a pilot program under which DOT shall install, operate, and assess the benefits of the technology of up to six remote air traffic control towers.
DOT must complete a safety risk management process for a participating airport before air traffic is actively controlled by a remote air traffic control tower at such airport.
An operator of a public-use airport may apply to participate in the pilot program. DOT: (1) shall establish a list of benefits of remote tower technology to the National Airspace System and criteria that facilities should meet in order to best achieve those benefits; and (2) may select for the pilot program, based on such criteria, one nonhub primary airport, two reliever airports without existing air traffic control towers, one primary airport for the purpose of augmenting the capabilities of an existing air traffic control tower, and two airports classified as local or basic in the national plan of integrated airport systems.
A selected airport shall be eligible for participation in, and funding from, the control tower contract program.
A remote air traffic control tower and ancillary equipment installed with federal funds under this bill shall be considered an air navigation facility.
The pilot program shall terminate five years after this bill's enactment.
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