Report Identifies U.S. Air Traffic System Improvement Opportunities

Improving U.S. National Airspace System (NAS) safety and efficiency requires short- and long-term commitments in four broad areas, including several new data-focused programs designed to improve predictive risk reduction, a special review team found. 

The FAA National Airspace System Safety Review Team’s (SRT’s) final report, released Nov. 15, groups 24 recommendations into four categories: process integrity within the FAA and its Air Traffic Organization (ATO) specifically; staffing; facilities, equipment, and technology; and funding, which the team notes has ties to each of the others. 

The six-member team flagged a number of shortcomings in each area that require “urgent action,” its final report said. 
“Generally, the ATO employs robust policies, procedures, and programs to manage safety risk and enjoys a just safety culture,” the report said. “However, the FAA continues to be asked to do more with less in an already strained system, and the series of serious incidents in early 2023 illuminate significant challenges to the provision and safety oversight of air traffic services.” 

Announced in March as part of the FAA’s ongoing safety “call to action,” the SRT was tasked by then-acting Administrator Billy Nolen to develop “concrete” recommendations for the agency on how to reduce risk in the NAS.

Several serious incidents in late 2022 and early 2023 prompted the call to action, and FAA data shows that while incursions are not increasing significantly, the number of high-risk occurrences involving commercial aircraft is up compared to 2022. 

Among the team’s recommendations is for ATO to add an airline-like safety assessment program to its processes. Modeled after Line Operations Safety Assessments (LOSA), the program would help “facilitate a proactive, predictive approach to risk management,” the report said. “Creating such a program requires time and significant resource investments to evolve processes and the safety culture,” the SRT added. 

The team also urges evolution of the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) to a more predictive focus. 

“Continuing to improve safety necessitates an evolution of CAST beyond the historic approach of examining past accident data to a proactive, predictive approach that focuses on detecting risk and implementing mitigation strategies before accidents or serious incidents occur,” the report said. 

CAST, the FAA-industry group that uses aggregated data to identify risks and develops mitigation strategies—and is the primary driver behind lowering the U.S. commercial airline fatality risk since the mid-1990s—has been shifting to a more proactive approach to risk mitigation. That shift includes new ways of evaluating data from its primary source, the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) program. 

“The SRT applauds recent FAA and industry collaborative efforts to analyze existing CAST and ASIAS processes and evolve the data-driven approach to aviation safety,” the report said. “Teams exploring improvements to [safety management systems], data/metrics, governance, and communications are on track to complete short-term goals, while setting the stage for mid- and long-term efforts through 2025.” 

General aviation’s use of data-driven risk mitigation should expand as well, the team said. Current programs should be examined and, where possible, improved. “Key elements ... should align with other voluntary, non-punitive safety reporting programs currently in use in other aviation sectors,” the report said. 

 

Infrastructure, Technology, Staffing

The team identified aging infrastructure and under-utilization of new technology as two major facilities-related shortcomings. The ADS-B equipage effort fell short for several reasons. Among them: some users, “the military in particular,” did not equip all its aircraft. This prevents FAA from decommissioning older systems, which adds to operational costs with minimal user benefit. 

The SRT’s recommendations include identifying systems in need of improvements and decommissioning and developing a list of upgrade priorities that will be done using “private industry’s practice of iteration to the best solution,” as opposed to settling on a technology at the beginning of the procurement process. 

“We find it very difficult to decommission older facilities,” said Michael Huerta, former FAA administrator and SRT member. “The cumulative effect of all of those makes is extremely difficult to manage.” 

Staffing garnered the most recommendations, totaling 12. They focused on FAA’s long-discussed shortcomings in matching the workforce to its projected needs. Among current datapoints underscoring the problem is that the agency has about 1,000 fewer top-tier front line workers, or certified professional controllers (CPCs), than it had in 2012. This despite no change in the number of facilities and “increased complexity of the airspace,” the report noted. 

Among the SRT’s recommendations: develop better modeling on a facility-by-facility basis. 

The team also recommended expanding capacity at the FAA’s Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, training center by adding instructors, expanding hours of operation, and jettisoning any outdated or unnecessary coursework based on stale regulatory requirements. 
A failure rate of 30% at the academy also contributes to lower-than-ideal throughput, the team found. The FAA should examine both how it selects candidates and the training they receive and make changes to help reduce the washout rate, the report said. 

Reducing training timelines without compromising on the quality of instruction is another opportunity. The FAA should explore expanded use of simulators and other state-of-the-art training devices and set a goal of cutting CPC training time by 30%, the SRT said. 

All of the changes require funding. Revamping how the FAA’s primary funding source, the Airport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF), collects and distributes revenue is necessary, the SRT argues. 

Commercial space and Unmanned Aerial Systems operators do not pay into it, for example, “nor are there any plans for them to do so,” the report said. The looming urban air mobility segment is slated to be treated the same. 

Meanwhile, shares of airline ancillary fees do not flow into the fund either. 

The SRT suggests updating AATF funding sources to better account for current and near-term NAS usage. 

More importantly, the AATF’s output is “still subject to appropriations and subject to federal budgetary caps on government expenditures” despite being collected from, and intended for, aviation. 

Congress should “exempt appropriations funded by the AATF for the FAA Facilities and Equipment and Operations accounts from federal budgetary caps up to the amount of revenue received into the AATF the previous fiscal year,” the SRT recommends. 

The FAA’s Operations account, which funds its day-to-day work, should be treated similarly. The account should not get any general funding, but rather rely on aviation user fees and become “a self-sustaining government service.” 

Huerta, discussing the team’s work with reporters, cautioned that progress will require significant patience and investment. 

“There are some things that the agency can focus on in terms of increasing the throughput through the hiring and training programs, and also to try to get greater efficiency out of those candidates that we do identify,” Huerta said. “But I think it’s important to recognize that, for the most part, these are not silver bullets or quick fixes. What it really requires is a concerted effort on the part of all aviation stakeholders to work together to provide the resources and to provide what the agency needs in order to carry out its critical safety mission.” 

The six-person team included former NASA Administrator and astronaut Charles Bolden Jr.; former Air Line Pilots Association, International President Tim Canoll; former National Air Traffic Controllers Association Executive Vice President Patricia Gilbert; former FAA Chief Operating Officer David Grizzle; former NTSB Chair Robert Sumwalt; and Huerta.