A planned $300 million budget increase for the US Federal Aviation Administration on top of the $9.8 billion it received in the 1998 financial year is in the pipeline from the Department of Transportation (DoT). The DoT's requested total budget of $51 billion this financial year includes $10.1 billion for the FAA.
Meanwhile, the DoT and FAA are renewing efforts to spin the air traffic control function off into a so-called performance-based organisation. DoT Secretary Rodney Slater says: "This should enable these activities to run with a more customer-focused and business-like approach." Past efforts to shift the mission to a quasi-governmental organisation failed to pass through Congress.
The budget includes $1 billion for aviation safety programmes designed to reduce aviation-related fatalities by 80% within a decade. It also earmarks $1.6 billion for US airport improvement projects.
Continued development of the "free flight" air navigation system which will allow pilots to choose their own flight paths has had $185 million set aside for it. The funding supports Free Flight Phase 1 (1998-2002) which is mainly ground-based, involving the deployment of prototype decision-supporting systems at key locations. These systems are to be deployed nationally in Phase 2 (2003-2007), allowing limited free flight operations to be achieved by Phase 3 (2008-2015).
A spend of $6 billion for operations and $2.3 billion for infrastructure and equipment is planned, which is an 11% increase on last year. About $1 billion is for air traffic control equipment, including $130 million for the troubled Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS). Finally, another $173 million is earmarked for research and development, which includes $39 million for continued work on aircraft structures and materials, and $53 million for systems security research.
Source: Flight International
