The FAA Process of Selecting Locations for Automated Flight Service Stations

Gao ID: RCED-84-95 March 2, 1984

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) selection process for leased automated flight service stations (AFSS's).

GAO found that the guidance provided to FAA regional offices for evaluating community proposals and costs for AFSS facilities did not contain specific instructions on how to evaluate facility communication costs which generally make up about 50 to 80 percent of the total long-term cost estimate for a site. As a result, regional office inconsistencies in dealing with communication costs influenced the selections of communities and resulted in higher costs. After this matter was brought to the attention of FAA, it took action to standardize the criteria. Despite predicted reductions in AFSS staff levels, FAA regional representatives were telling communities that each of the new stations would employ about 80 to 100 people. After notification, FAA has amended such information. GAO noted other variances among FAA regions in the way they evaluate proposals and calculated long-term costs which indicated that more specific guidance was needed. As a result, FAA may have limited competition in some areas.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Oliver W. Krueger Team: General Accounting Office: Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division Phone: (202) 275-5514


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.