Airspace Use

FAA Needs to Improve Its Management of Special Use Airspace Gao ID: RCED-88-147 August 5, 1988

In response to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) management of special-use airspace set aside for military training, focusing on its: (1) approval process for special-use proposals; and (2) monitoring of existing special-use airspace.

GAO found that FAA: (1) lacked adequate data to effectively manage special-use airspace areas and did not require military services to provide such data; (2) did not establish guidance for its regions to reduce or eliminate inappropriate use of special airspace areas; and (3) planned to discuss its role in evaluating military environmental assessments in special-use proposals with the Council on Environmental Quality. GAO noted that, in 1987, two Navy staff studies on special-use airspace utilization showed that the Navy: (1) lacked a standard, centralized system for documenting and reporting its airspace usage; and (2) inefficiently and inappropriately used special airspace 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.

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