By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration needs more funding from Congress to complete phase one of a $10.6 billion air traffic control reform plan and has underestimated the total costs of operating the new system, according to a government report released on Monday.
The Government Accountability Office said the FAA had not fully assessed the costs of operating the new system or set a detailed schedule for completing reforms.
“In essence, the FAA is buying delivery speed at the risk of cost uncertainty and potential disruptions,” the GAO report said, adding, “these risks increase the likelihood of FAA repeating its history of cost overruns, delays, and unmet performance targets.”
Congress previously approved $9 billion for ATC reforms in the first phase. The FAA is also using $1 billion from its current-year budget and needs another $574 million, the GAO said. The price tag for telecommunications upgrades has jumped $4.75 billion to $5.91 billion, GAO said.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford is set to testify on Tuesday before Congress on the effort and its plan to begin deploying a software-based program to try to avoid flight delays.
The GAO said the FAA has over 11,000 separate projects in phase one of the $10.6 billion reform plan.
The FAA said in a letter to the GAO that it is committed to using best practices to oversee the project that it says “remains largely on plan,” including over 95% of specific tasks.
The FAA’s existing air traffic control systems are “severely outdated, underperforming, and unsustainable. This aging and unreliable technology has contributed to an increase in aviation incidents,” GAO said.
Replacing air traffic control tower voice switches carries the highest risk because of the size of the sites and airspace it controls, the age of technology and need to operate new and old voice switches simultaneously.
The GAO noted that the FAA released its first comprehensive plan for improving air traffic control services in 1982 and has since suffered a series of cost overruns and delays while delivering limited results.
The FAA in December tapped Peraton, which is owned by Veritas Capital, to oversee the modernization effort, awarding it a $1.5 billion contract.
(Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Nick Zieminski and Bill Berkrot)
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