FAA aims for June 30 Y2K fix

The Federal Aviation Administration expects to have all of its mission-critical systems Year 2000-compliant by June 30 and is now monitoring Year 2000 activity of its international partners and of U.S. airlines and airports, an agency official said today.

Raymond Long, the FAA's Year 2000 coordinator, said that 64 percent of the agency's 151 mission-critical systems will be compliant by the governmentwide March 31 deadline set by the Office of Management and Budget. "We recognize the OMB deadline [and] worked very hard to meet it," Long said. "But it would be very hard to meet that deadline when the FAA was seven months behind."

Additionally, after July 1, the FAA will issue an advisory detailing the Year 2000 efforts of the top six locations that handle air traffic for international flights to and from the United States. Those six sites—the Bahamas, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico and the United Kingdom—account for 60 percent of U.S.-based international flights.

Long said all the major U.S. airlines are in very good shape. But he does expect minor disruptions at some of the nation's 500 major airports, such as lost baggage and ticket problems, because of Year 2000 problems with related systems. FAA is expecting a report by June 30 from the major airports about their Year 2000 efforts.

The FAA said it now plans to hold briefings on the Year 2000 once a month.