Air Traffic Control

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the status of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) overall air traffic control modernization program and selected individual major systems.

GAO found that FAA: (1) experienced increases in the overall cost of the modernization effort, and estimated that it would require about $31 billion in facilities and equipment appropriations through 2000, a $4 billion increase over its April 1990 estimate; (2) completed 30 modernization projects through 1990, accounting for 2 percent of the $31 billion, and had 203 active and planned projects in its Capital Investment Plan; (3) continued to experience cost increases ranging from $0.2 million to $504 million and schedule delays ranging from 8 to 23 months, for 12 major systems; (4) completed only one of six projects it anticipated completing in 1990; (5) redefined its major acquisitions to include those procurements exceeding $50 million, resulting in an increase in the number of major acquisitions from 11 in 1990 to 44 in 1991; and (6) made several efforts to increase its compliance with federal requirements to reevaluate major projects at critical points in the procurement process.