Air Traffic Control

Efforts to Modernize Oceanic System Delayed Gao ID: IMTEC-91-2 January 16, 1991

GAO reviewed the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) efforts to provide automation support to improve oceanic air traffic control.

GAO found that: (1) air traffic control services in oceanic areas not under radar surveillance have not changed significantly since 1950; (2) oceanic air traffic controllers lacked a modern automated system and manually updated flight progress based on periodic radio reports; (3) the labor-intensive manual process required controllers to maintain large distances between aircraft; (4) an automated system could facilitate a more efficient use of airspace, resulting in shorter flights and fuel savings; (5) FAA designed the Oceanic Display and Planning System (ODAPS) to provide an automated display of aircraft locations based on periodic radio reports, but ODAPS would not change the current pilot reporting communications procedures or permit a reduction in aircraft separation standards; (6) ODAPS experienced cost increases, was 3 years behind schedule, and was not fully operational; and (7) the FAA long-term Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS) project plan to use satellites to provide position information on a real-time basis was dependent upon ODAPS success.

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: Team: Phone:


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.