AOPA Says Capitol Hill Committee To Loosen Purse Strings
At AOPA’s urging,
Congress last week directed the FAA to ensure that pilots continue
to get the best possible flight briefing and en route information
services without user fees. The committee that holds the
agency’s purse strings told the FAA to have specific,
comprehensive customer service standards for maintaining the
quality of pilot briefings.
AOPA's legislative affairs staff worked with the House
Appropriations Committee to add the FSS service directive to the
report accompanying next year's funding bill for the FAA. The bill
has been approved by the committee and now goes to the full House
and Senate.
"This guidance from Congress is a very pointed reminder to the
agency that pilots need a high level of service, whether the
briefers work directly for the government or indirectly through a
contractor," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "Flight service
station functions are safety-of-flight issues, and pilot service
and safety can't be shortchanged. Just like inbound call centers
used by businesses, the government’s flight service stations
must have metrics for on-hold times, abandon rates, and time to
answer calls from pilots."
The issue is important because the FAA is currently conducting a
so-called "A-76" study to determine whether it should contract out
some FSS functions, much as it does already with the DUAT
service.
The congressional report says, "In order to maintain a high
level of safety and efficiency in the provision of flight service
activities, the Committee urges FAA to ensure that the flight
service station competitive sourcing effort require bidders to
provide comprehensive and specific customer service standards for
providing flight briefings to pilots as well as a process for
ongoing customer service monitoring and evaluation."
"That's really more than
a suggestion," explained Andy Cebula, AOPA senior vice president of
Government and Technical Affairs. "When the people who write the
checks tell a government agency to do something, the bureaucrats
usually pay attention."
Last week was the deadline for bids to outsource the FSS system.
The bidders include aerospace companies such as Lockheed Martin,
Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon. While some think this process
always leads to contracting out the government service, that's not
true.
The FAA itself, in partnership with FSS equipment manufacturer
Harris Corporation, is also in the bidding. It's making its own
business case that the FAA is the most efficient organization (MEO)
to run flight services. In most other A-76 studies, the government
agency, or MEO, continues to provide the service. But no previous
A-76 process has been for something as big as the flight service
system, which costs some $550 million a year to run.
AOPA has been part of the A-76 process from the beginning to
make sure pilots have a voice in the outcome. For example, the
association's technical staff had significant input in describing
the services pilots need from FSS.
And AOPA will have a voice in the performance standards that the
future FSS will have to meet whether the service is provided by
government employees or contractors.
"Rest assured, as both a heavy user of FSS for more than three
decades, and as I lead your association in addressing this change,
pilot needs and a government-funded service, without user fees,
will be of utmost importance," said Boyer.