FAA lacks detailed plan for overhaul of tri-state airspace

The Federal Aviation Administration has yet to develop a comprehensive strategy for restructuring flight routes to airports in three Mid-Atlantic metropolitan areas, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

Comment on this article in The Forum.FAA has not determined what type of equipment or software will be needed or where a new radar control system for the region will be housed, making the final cost, schedule and configuration of the project uncertain, the report (GAO-08-786) stated.

The agency announced in September 2007 that it would implement an airspace structure for the five major airports and numerous regional airports serving New York City, Philadelphia and metropolitan areas in New Jersey. The announcement followed nine years of evaluation at a cost of more than $53 million. The goal of the project was to improve efficiency and reduce delays.

FAA estimates that the new design could save as much as $300 million annually and reduce delays up to 20 percent once it's fully implemented.

"Because the New York metropolitan area airports provide service to one of the most populated urban areas in the United States, as well as to substantial commercial air traffic,any delays in this region tend to ripple throughout the National Airspace System," the report stated. The region's airspace, therefore, has become a critical choke point, and any resulting problems have substantial national impacts."

It's unclear whether the agency can meet its goal of having the redesign complete by 2012 because the agency still is developing an implementation plan, GAO said. The cost of the project is uncertain because FAA has yet to pick equipment and software for a single radar processing system for all air traffic controllers in the area. It also has yet to decide how much equipment will be necessary.

In addition, FAA still must determine whether the new radar system will be housed in an existing, new or consolidated facility. A plan to build a radar control tower for the New York region is under review, with a decision expected later in September. But even if the location is approved, the final cost estimate for the new radar control facility would not be available until September 2011, when the contract is awarded, and the new facility would not be completed until 2015, three years after the project's stated deadline.

Many community groups in the region have taken issue with the project because they are concerned about a potentially substantial increase in aircraft noise and adverse environmental effects. The groups have filed 13 separate lawsuits challenging the redesign, arguing that FAA did not sufficiently investigate the alternatives to changing the flight routes, such as charging airlines additional fees for using runways during times of peak demand. The litigation is pending, but FAA is going ahead with the first steps of implementing the airspace design in December.

GAO found that the agency had developed a "reasonable range of alternatives to the redesign and appropriately evaluated these alternatives." Because the redesign was not intended to increase traffic, FAA did not have to consider the potential environmental effect of the changes, the report said. GAO also found that FAA "reasonably involved the public during the environmental review process." The report added that the courts have upheld similar decisions by FAA where the purpose of the project was not to induce growth.

In its response to the report, the Transportation Department reiterated that GAO concluded FAA's actions were reasonable, but declined to go into much detail due to the pending litigation.