(Adds FAA comment)
By Ayesha Rascoe and Alana Wise
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, Feb 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump called the U.S. air traffic control system out of date on Thursday and criticized its $10 billion yearly price tag but stopped short of calling for privatization of the program.
"I hear we're spending billions and billions of dollars, it's a system that's totally out of whack," Trump said during a picture-taking session at the White House ahead of his sitdown with airline and airport executives.
His comments heartened advocates of privatization who have long sought to move away from the system they see as outdated.
"We want to get the government out of the role of managing the air traffic control system," Gary Kelly, Southwest Airlines Co's chief executive officer, told Trump during the picture-taking session.
The Federal Aviation Administration spends nearly $10 billion a year on air traffic control funded largely through passenger user fees, and has about 28,000 air traffic control personnel.
Trump said he had been informed that ongoing modernization efforts to the air traffic control system were already obsolete by the pilot of his private jet.
"I hear the government contracted for a system that's the wrong system," Trump said. "It's way over budget, it's way behind schedule and when it's complete it's not going to be a good system."
The FAA has spent nearly $3 billion since 2007 to implement an updated system, "NextGen," which would utilize satellites to monitor aircraft instead of radar and make other changes.
"NextGen is one of the most ambitious infrastructure and modernization projects in U.S. history," the agency said in a statement. "The FAA invited airline stakeholders to help develop the blueprint for NextGen and they continue to have a seat at the table in setting NextGen priorities and investments through the NextGen Advisory Committee."
The Government Accountability Office said in a 2016 report that the United States "is generally considered to have the busiest, most complex and safest ATC system in the world." (http://bit.ly/1Q9oiOF)
The chief executives of United Airlines Inc, Delta Air Lines Inc, Southwest and JetBlue Airways Corp were among those who attended the meeting.
After the meeting, Airports Council International-North America President and CEO Kevin Burke told reporters on a conference call that airport officials had urged Trump to lift the cap on airport passenger fees to address airport infrastructure needs.
Trump proposed during his campaign to spend $1 trillion over a decade to upgrade the country's infrastructure.