The Federal Aviation Administration’s efforts to implement reforms have fallen short, a new report from the Department of Transportation Inspector General claims.
The report, titled “FAA Reforms Have Not Achieved Expected Cost, Efficiency, and Modernization Outcomes,” outlines what it characterizes as “numerous shortcomings” in reform areas, including improvement of delivery of air traffic services and modernization of the air traffic control systems, as well as operating more effectively and efficiently overall.
Specifically, the report says the FAA’s efforts have fallen short of anticipated cost savings and operational efficiencies, as well as in improving the delivery of new technologies and capabilities.
The report comes at a time when the U.S. Congress is considering various proposals to partially privatize the nation’s air traffic control system – currently operated by FAA – by creating a nongovernmental agency to oversee many functions.
Bill Shuster, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman, used the report to illustrate his opinion that privatization is warranted.
“This report shows that the FAA simply isn’t suited to successfully modernize our nation’s antiquated air traffic control system,” said Shuster. “Over two decades of FAA personnel, organizational, and acquisition reforms have failed to slow the agency’s cost growth, improve its productivity or improve its performance in modernizing the system. The FAA remains a vast government bureaucracy, not a high-tech service provider. It’s clear from the DOT IG’s findings that we need transformational FAA reform if we are going to have a safe, efficient, 21st-century aviation system.”
According to the Inspector General’s report, although the FAA has implemented performance-based compensation systems, established the Air Traffic Organization, contracted out flight service stations operations and reorganized multiple times over the years, costs continue to rise, while operational productivity has declined. The FAA has also missed opportunities to complete large-scale facility consolidations that would maximize operations, improve the flow of air traffic, avoid the cost of maintaining aging facilities and facilitate the transition to NextGen capabilities.
Furthermore, major FAA air traffic control modernization projects continue to experience problems that delay the introduction of new technologies, postpone benefits to system users and defer the retirement of costly legacy systems, the report said.
The Inspector General found that several underlying and systemic issues, including overambitious plans, shifting requirements, software development problems, ineffective contract and program management, and unreliable cost and schedule estimates, impact the FAA’s ability to introduce new technologies and capabilities that are critical to transitioning to NextGen.
That transition to NextGen has been floundering for the past several years, giving proponents of privatization ammunition. Many major U.S. carriers have recently upped their lobbying efforts for a privatized structure, while general aviation groups have expressed concerns about potential user fees that could be imposed on operators of personal and business aircraft.
In a recent letter to Transportation and Infrastructure Committee members, more than a dozen general aviation-related trade groups warned that, “The general aviation community has very real and long-standing concerns about foreign air traffic control models, which go well beyond the user fee issue.”
