Flight Service Sigmet

Not too long ago the FAA put a ‘slide show’ on the internet to illustrate their business outlook for the next ten or so years. For some reason it didn’t last long in the public domain; down it came, off their web site after (apparently) only a day or two. NATCA, in a surprisingly useful effort, captured the slides and has reproduced them here. You can also read NATCA president Carr’s comments on the slide show follies here, here, and here.

For our purposes a few other things stand out. One is an official re-statement of the cost-savings of the Flight Service contract to Lockheed Martin. The savings are still “officially” estimated at 2.2 billion, but over 13 years instead of the previously advertised 10. For those who enjoy direct mathematical comparisons, that equates to 1.7 billion over 10 years. Now just where have we heard that figure before…

Also of great interest to those following this blog is an up-tick in the call for user fees, specifically on this slide entitled “Something Must Be Done.” That ‘something’ is in reference to the FAAs anticipated revenue gap. And prominently displayed under ‘Potential Sources’ for additional income is ‘Cost-Based User Fees.’ What was once just a whisper last year is now growing into an official position.

We’ve always told AOPA president Phil Boyer that cozying up to the FAA is not going to secure his pet issue (stopping such user fees), least of all his uninformed cheerleading of contracting out the FAA’s Flight Service Stations.