Meanwhile....choose your airline carefully

[haele]

3. They have a concept of a plan.

I've heard of many concepts of plans to improve the ATC systems. Problem is, the FAA's budget is not a front burner issue, and by the time Congress got them the money to update their systems, technology had leapfrogged way ahead and the FAA was already considering the next update coming down the road.
And the money they got wasn't enough to make an upgrade that would be somewhere between what originally they asked and what they're now aiming for.