Air Traffic Control

Status of FAA's Plans to Close and Contract Out Low-Activity Towers Gao ID: RCED-94-265 September 12, 1994

From fiscal year 1994 through fiscal year 1997, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plans to close low-activity air traffic control towers that do not meet its benefit-cost criteria, contract out the operations of all remaining towers, and relocate controllers from towers that are closed or contracted out to other FAA facilities. FAA does not believe that safety will be jeopardized by closing or contracting out low-activity towers. FAA's benefit-cost criteria include an assessment of safety and FAA has not experienced safety problems with towers that are already run by contractors. This report (1) determines the reasonableness of FAA's plans to close low-activity towers and contract out the operations of others, (2) assesses the reasonableness of the potential savings generated by such actions, (3) identifies factors that could impede FAA's plans to close and contract out towers, and (4) identifies steps that FAA can take to enhance its strategy for reassigning controllers from closed-out and contracted-out towers.

GAO found that: (1) FAA plans to close or contract out all of its level 1 towers appear reasonable; (2) of the 151 level 1 towers, 36 do not meet FAA benefit-cost criteria for continued operations, and FAA plans to close 23 of these towers within the next 3 years; (3) FAA estimates that it will save up to $5 million annually when it closes the 23 towers and an additional $3 million annually if it closes 12 more towers; (4) 32 level 1 towers are currently contracted out, and FAA estimates that it could save up to $120 million if it contracts out the operations of the remaining 127 towers by 1997; (5) FAA does not expect to realize savings immediately because of the short-term costs to relocate controllers to other facilities; (6) mixed signals from Congress regarding level 1 towers and incomplete Department of Labor wage determinations for each tower location may affect FAA efforts to close or contract out towers; (7) although the FAA agreement with the controllers' union will allow it to reassign controllers at the 25 towers to be contracted out in 1994, FAA does not have a strategy for reassigning controllers from towers to be closed or contracted out to higher-level facilities after 1994; and (8) FAA could incur significant costs in relocating controllers that do not succeed at higher-level facilities.

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.

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