Only Six Individual FSS Offices Will Remain

Lockheed Martin, which won a 10-year, $1.7 billion contract in 2005 to operate the flight service system for the FAA, says it will close seven of the remaining 13 FSS facilities in February of next year. There were 58 such facilities when Lockheed won the contract 4 years ago.

Lockheed Martin Spokeswoman Jan Gottfredsen told the Lansing State Journal the move is due to decreased demand nationwide. “There’s been a general decline in general aviation traffic,” Gottfredsen said. “This will enable us to meet the performance level with fewer facilities.”

AOPA reports that the facilities slated for closure include  Columbia, Missouri; Honolulu; Kankakee, Illinois; Lansing, Michigan; Nashville, Tennessee; Seattle, Washington; and St. Petersburg, Florida.

Some 160 Lockheed employees will be displaced. Lockheed said it will work with employees to find other positions in the company, and will offer reverence packages. But workers will not be transfered to other FSS facilities within the system.

Jim Curlin, a 12-year employee at the Lansing, Michigan station, told the Lansing State Journal “Lansing flight service is critical to the aviation community as it provides years of experience dealing with the complex Great Lakes weather patterns and flight planning.” But many of the users of the new automated system say there has been no degradation of the information available.

Gottfredsen told the Columbia Daily Tribune the switch from dozens of individual service sites to an automated nationwide network has made the flow of information to pilots more efficient.

“The important thing is that the consolidation is going to be done without any loss to the general aviation community that we serve,” Gottfredsen said. “Because of the improvements that we experience through the automated system, we found ourselves in an overstaffed situation.”

FMI: www.lockheedmartin.com