Report Cites High Costs, Implementation Delays

The FAA has apparently given up -- for the time being -- attempts to modernize the air traffic control system and is instead focused on simply trying to maintain what it has now. That's the gist of a report from the DOT Inspector General, issued Tuesday.

The report focused on both delays in implementing new technology and the rising costs associated with that implementation as reasons for the entrenchment.

In a study of 16 FAA projects, the IG report found nine had been delayed for between two and 12 years. Two had been deferred altogether. Of the projects still underway, eleven suffered cost increases totalling $5.6 billion.

Some of the most notable cost increases were found in the Raytheon project to make the GPS system fully-functional and in Raytheon's implementation of the STARS system (controller workstation upgrade).

The cost of the GPS project had grown 278-percent to $3.3 billion and was the most overdue -- 12-years behind schedule.

The STARS upgrade cost has risen 194-percent to $2.8 billion and is now seven years behind schedule.

"[T]he crucial question is how FAA can address both capacity and affordability at the same time," wrote Assistant Inspector General for Aviation and Special Program Audits, David Dobbs, wrote to FAA Administrator Marion Blakey. The letter was quoted by Reuters.

"We have made this effort a top priority for the FAA and its air traffic organization," FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto told the wire service, saying the FAA agreed with the IG's findings and recommendations.

FMI: www.faa.gov