AOPA President Phil Boyer has been flying since 1967.
No organization cares more about the flight service station (FSS) system than AOPA. As the pilot's advocate, we know that getting good aviation preflight and in-flight weather services is critical to safety. FSS is the primary government-approved source for aviation weather, and general aviation is its biggest customer. In fact, GA pilots make 80 percent of all FSS contacts.
However, FSS must evolve or it will die. The system is in a state of decline and disrepair, with escalating costs and reduced service. The government's reliance on obsolete 1970s computer technology is no longer supportable and cannot meet pilots' needs. When the system was designed there was no Weather Channel, no Internet weather, no DUATS, and weather technology was not as advanced as it is today. The qualified and dedicated weather briefing specialists we all appreciate are the only part of the system that doesn't need to change.
With these factors in mind, the FAA is embarking on an 18-month modernization study of FSS, called an A-76 study. And with so much at stake, AOPA has insisted that the FAA allow us to formally participate in this important study. The study compares the cost of having the FAA provide flight services with the cost of contracting these services to commercial companies. The study will be conducted under the guidelines of Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, which directs government agencies to examine functions that might be performed by commercial sources. The circular recognizes that some functions are inherently governmental, and that government employees may be the best providers of those services.
Both the General Accounting Office (GAO) and Inspector General (IG) published reports in 2001 citing the escalating cost of maintaining the current FSS program, the FAA's inability to effectively modernize the current FSS computer system, and widespread inefficiencies in the current FSS program. The FSS system now costs close to $600 million annually, and at 29 million pilot contacts, that amounts to $20 per FAA inquiry. Compare this to the commercially provided DUATS service, at a mere $1.50 per contact. The magnitude of this difference is indisputable. Don't get me wrong, AOPA is not advocating eliminating telephone briefings, but if users and service providers don't figure out a way to lower the cost and make FSS more efficient, we could be an easy target for user fees.
A common misperception of the A-76 process is that it results in privatization of a government function. The A-76 is not a privatization study, nor is it a foregone conclusion that services will be contracted out. Most important, the current service provider (in this case, the FAA) has a key role in the process, in that it submits its own business case analysis of its service and a plan for maximizing that service in the future.
Aviation weather services are critical to public safety and should be provided by the government without fees. However, AOPA recognizes that the current FSS system is in serious jeopardy and that there may be better ways of doing business. AOPA is working to ensure that the A-76 study looks at alternatives for providing modernized flight services to pilots with the government still retaining the ultimate responsibility for providing the service.
In a recent survey, AOPA members weighed in on this issue. Sixty-five percent of the respondents said they would be satisfied with the government outsourcing FSS services if no fee would be charged. AOPA would actively oppose any measures that would remove responsibility for flight services from the federal government. The use of outside resources for FSS functions is not unprecedented. In the 1980s, the FAA implemented DUATS, with private contractors providing aviation weather services directly to pilots.
AOPA continues to work closely with the FAA and union leadership representing the hard-working corps of FSS specialists. AOPA is playing a key role in identifying GA requirements related to aviation weather services, notams, and other safety functions performed by FSS. AOPA will be at the table to develop the document (called a performance work statement) that describes the functions and requirements for FSS.
This study comes at a critical time in the life of FSS because, despite our best efforts, current FSS modernization plans are behind schedule and over budget. The long-awaited new computer system called Operational and Supportability Implementation System, or OASIS, is beginning to look more like a mirage. OASIS is intended to replace the 1970s-era computers currently in use. Five years behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget, this system is finally being deployed, but it may be obsolete by the time it is fully implemented, if it's ever fully implemented. We'll be lucky to have OASIS installed by the end of the decade. It provides no direct benefit or interfaces to the GA pilot. OASIS doesn't offer Internet access, accept international flight plans automatically, have air traffic information, include real-time special-use airspace or graphical TFRs (temporary flight restrictions), or other local notams. FSS needs more than OASIS; it needs a whole new paradigm.
Flight service stations must be modernized and briefings be brought down in cost, or FSS will face extinction. AOPA is approaching the FSS study just like a pilot approaches a weather briefing; we are reviewing the reports, analyzing the data, and looking at the charts. A-76 could very well provide the best route of flight, given the current gloomy forecast.
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