For millions of Americans, the upcoming holidays mean flying home, often to a small town served by a small airport. While Americans make their holiday plans, what they may not know is that the big airlines are demanding Congress pass a bill that would likely threaten needed upgrades at airports in small towns and communities across the country.

The airlines seek, in the form of legislation known as H.R. 2997, to essentially wrest control of the nation’s air traffic control (ATC) system from Congress, and put it in their own hands. This power grab has been peddled as privatization or modernization, but it really amounts to a giveaway to a board of special interests.