Mon, Aug 30, 2004
by NAATS President Wally Pike
In this month's issue of AOPA Pilot,
AOPA President Phil Boyer addresses the modernization of flight
service (FSS). This is in response to that article and is written
from the perspective of the union that represents the air traffic
controllers in the flight service stations. I won’t go into
our inherently governmental arguments on why this workforce should
remain federal as I believe the AOPA membership already understands
that issue. Instead I’ll confine my comments to the points
made in the article.
The article cites as fact that the FSS budgetary costs are
greater than $550 million annually and that this breaks down to a
cost of $15 per pilot contact. Actually the $550 million figure
includes facilities and equipment (F&E) costs, some airways
facilities (AF) costs as well as parts of the research and
development (R&D) costs of the FAA budget. It does not
correspond to $15 per pilot contact; in fact the FAA does not have
an effective way to measure costs per pilot contact so these are
always estimated. The FAA will vary that estimate depending on the
particular audience and agenda they are espousing at the time.
Apparently AOPA has adopted this methodology as later in the
article the FAA costs have ballooned to "almost $600 million".
The article further makes the
semantic argument about the difference in terminology between
"privatization" and what the FAA is actually doing which is
"outsourcing." We also encounter this argument on Capitol Hill
after the FAA briefings. Privatization would mean that the FAA is
divesting itself entirely from FSS; outsourcing means the FAA is
contracting out the services to the lowest bidder. NAATS believes
this is a distinction without a difference for the general aviation
public. The A76 process does incorporate an "in house" or MEO bid
and NAATS does have two members participating on the group. It
would be a mistake, however, to portray the MEO bid as being
jointly developed by employees and management. It is a management
bid and we are allowed only the participation required by the A76
circular; we are very much junior members in the venture and any
disagreements are resolved by FAA edict.
The article lists the bidders as Lockheed Martin, Northrop
Grumman, Raytheon and "others". The others are CSC. The article
does not mention the fact that NavCanada and Serco (a British based
firm) have been approved by the FAA to partner with the vendors.
The A76 screening information request (SIR) does not prohibit
non-US citizens from becoming the ultimate provider of FSS
services. NAATS has protested the SIR for this and various other
reasons.
The article mentions that fact that
congress has yet to weigh in regarding certain stations in their
states or districts scheduled to be closed. Actually this is like
the 800 pound gorilla sitting in the corner. Unless the FAA, NAATS
and user groups such as AOPA come to an agreement on architecture
there is almost no chance that congress will allow the vendors to
reach the "end state" of their proposals. The result is a colossal
waste of time and money.
NAATS does agree that FSS needs to be modernized. To this end
NAATS made an innovative proposal to the FAA Administrator last
summer that would result in approximately $600 million in cost
savings. Unlike the A76 process, our proposal would enhance the
services FSS controllers currently provide. Unfortunately this
proposal was rejected but we stand by our concept and are willing
to work with the FAA as well as the users such as AOPA to implement
and realize the efficiencies identified.
Bottom line -- this expensive study is ill-considered and
unnecessary. We should all be working toward a feasible
modernization system that could actually be implemented. NAATS is
prepared to do its part.
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