Thu, Mar 17, 2005
One of our favorite
news-spies dropped this on us a little while ago... a copy of a
memo that the FAA's Air Traffic guru, Russ Chew (below, right),
sent to his troops in an obvious attempt to pump up their morale
and put a positive spin on their recent efforts.
We thought you might find it interesting....
Dear Colleagues:
As the Air Traffic Organization enters its second year, I think
it’s important to note the significant progress we have made.
At the same time, it’s normal to feel confused and concerned
about the restructuring because we are still in the processes
broken in this massive change. Nevertheless, we’re seeing
positive, measurable results. You can be proud of your contribution
to achieve these results. Our overall unit cost was down in 2004
for the first time in nine years. Specifically, the overall unit
costs in 2004 dropped by $19 per flight, or about 4 percent. Our
operating expenses actually fell in 2004 when adjusted for
inflation. You are all to be commended for producing this
result.
To be sure, we still
have a long way to go in our journey through transformation, but
we’re off to a good start. In just one year, we have achieved
a number of major goals, including: Establishing the 10 service
units and streamlining the organization; creating the performance
benchmarks needed to improve both effectiveness and accountability;
instituting results-driven business planning, with operational and
financial commitments tied to the Flight Plan; improving financial
planning and reporting; initiating training for managers that
supports the changes, and improving communications. Over the next
phase of our transition plan, we’ll begin putting these new
tools to use – and that’s when real performance
improvements will become possible.
While we’ve been making necessary changes in structure and
business processes, there’s been no change in our dedication
to excellence in our service. That was evident, to cite one
example, in the successful development and implementation of the
high altitude Domestic Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum - a
major accomplishment. Our commercial aviation safety record remains
unsurpassed, even though we are handling rapidly increasing and
more complex traffic. In 2004, there were no fatal commercial
aircraft accidents in U.S. airspace. We achieved our 2004 goal of
reducing the most serious runway incursions. There were 28 such
incidents during the year, significantly better than the target of
40. We still have room for improvement in reducing operational
errors, as there were eight more such errors last year than the
goal of 629.
As we continue to stress safety, we also are striving to increase
capacity. Here too, there was progress. For example, ATO achieved
its FY 2004 goal for increasing airport arrivals. There were 51,588
flight arrivals a day at 35 top airports during the year, which
exceeded the goal of 51,332. We also took action to reduce delays
and congestion through agreements with industry leaders reached at
our first “Growth Without Gridlock” conference.
All of these achievements were due to your efforts.Thanks for
staying the course as we continue to build a strong foundation for
the ATO.
Sincerely,
Russ Chew
COO, FAA Air Traffic Organization
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