NEW YORK, US - US air travellers would have less congestion and fewer flight delays with airports and air-traffic control shifted to private hands, economist Clifford Winston said.

'The public system is a disaster,' Mr Winston, who studies the airline industry for the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said on Monday in a Bloomberg Radio interview. 'The problems of infrastructure are the result of the public sector because they control it.'

Aircraft groundings for inspections are adding to the strain on airlines and passengers as record high fuel costs erode profits and boost ticket prices. AMR Corp's American Airlines, the world's largest carrier, scrubbed more than 3,300 flights in April to fix wiring to meet a federal directive.

The growing number of small business jets and charter flights is only adding to the crowding of US airspace, delaying commercial jets' landings and takeoffs, Mr Winston said. The Federal Aviation Administration now manages US air traffic, and US airports typically are operated by cities, airport authorities or another government agency.

Stewart International Airport in Windsor, New York, in 1999 became the nation's first commercial airport to be privately run under a US privatisation programme. In 2007, it was taken over by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as part of the agency's efforts to relieve congestion at its other airports. -- Bloomberg