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FAA Airspace Redesign: An Analysis of the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Project

GAO-08-786 Published: Jul 31, 2008. Publicly Released: Aug 29, 2008.
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Highlights

In September 2007, after 9 years of evaluation and a cost of over $53 million, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it would begin implementing a new airspace structure for the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia metropolitan area. According to FAA, this redesign of routes leading to and from commercial airports will fully integrate the airspace in the region, produce $300 million annual savings, and reduce delay by 20 percent once fully implemented. Critics disagree and cite potential increases in aircraft noise and other adverse environmental impacts. GAO was asked to examine: (1) the extent to which FAA followed legal requirements for its environmental review, (2) the extent to which FAA's methodology in assessing operational and noise impacts was reasonable, and (3) the likelihood FAA will meet its projected time frames and costs of implementation. GAO's legal analysis covered applicable federal laws, regulations, court decisions, and FAA orders. GAO's analysis of FAA's methodology was based on criteria established through review of federal policy, FAA's guidance, prior GAO reports, and standards from the aviation and analytical community. With the assistance of the National Academy of Sciences, GAO identified experts in the fields of environmental policies and procedures, airspace operations, and aircraft noise measurement and obtained their views on relevant aspects of FAA's methodology.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Transportation To improve FAA's effectiveness and accountability in implementing the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace Redesign, the the Secretary of the Department of Transportation should direct the Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to develop and follow a detailed implementation plan that includes a time and cost schedule, risk mitigation plan, transition planning, and monitoring and evaluation plan for the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace Redesign.
Closed – Implemented
In 2008, GAO evaluated FAA's compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and environmental justice directives in conducting the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace Redesign project. In assessing compliance, GAO found that FAA has not developed a detailed implementation plan for the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace Redesign with a schedule, and therefore GAO was unable to determine whether FAA would meet its projected timetable. In addition, the final project configuration and costs were unknown since FAA had not determined the type of equipment and software that would be needed. Therefore, GAO recommended that FAA develop and follow a detailed implementation plan that includes a time and cost schedule, risk mitigation plan, transition planning, and monitoring and evaluation plan. In 2012, FAA developed and published a detailed implementation schedule and transition plan. Also, FAA has developed a rough order of magnitude cost estimate, including contingency costs, for the remainder of the airspace redesign. Developing the transition plan, implementation schedule, and cost estimates will improve FAA's effectiveness and accountability in implementing the airspace redesign and thereby help to overcome concerns about FAA's ability to meet its estimated implementation time frame, deal with potential obstacles, or transition from the current airspace structure to the redesigned structure.
Department of Transportation To improve FAA's effectiveness and accountability in implementing the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace Redesign, the the Secretary of the Department of Transportation should direct the Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to follow a post implementation evaluation plan that includes an adaptive management strategy for monitoring implementation of the redesign and communicating the results to key stakeholders for the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace Redesign.
Closed – Implemented
We found that the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) did not have a plan for how it was going to evaluate the implementation of its New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace Redesign project. One strategy used by other federal agencies for evaluating a project's implementation is the adaptive management strategy. Adaptive management is a strategy that recognizes the need for flexibility and would allow for modification of the redesigned airspace if the results of future research indicate a need for change, as long as these changes do not significantly affect the quality of the human environment. We recommended that FAA follow a post implementation evaluation plan that includes an adaptive management strategy for monitoring implementation of the redesign and communicating the results to key stakeholders. In response, FAA has begun using Human-In-the-Loop simulation activities to monitor its implementation of the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace Redesign project. As a result, FAA can monitor whether the preferred alternative for the airspace on paper is actually occurring in practice and may adjust the airspace changes to meet the intended results.
Department of Transportation To improve FAA's effectiveness in conducting future airspace redesigns, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation should, in developing and implementing future airspace redesigns, direct the Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct an uncertainty analysis of key assumptions and inputs--particularly on elements within aviation demand forecasts. The analysis should be used to assess the extent to which the estimated impacts for the airspace redesign alternatives would change using different values for key assumptions and inputs and to provide information on the level of confidence in the project's estimated impacts and the relative ranking of the alternatives.
Closed – Not Implemented
In July, 2012, FAA notified GAO that the FAA will not implement this recommendation because (1) no other airspace redesigns have been initiated by FAA since NY/NJ/PHL and, (2) it has not been implemented within any FAA guidance because if it is FAA?s view that each redesign is unique and project specific.
Department of Transportation To improve FAA's effectiveness in conducting future airspace redesigns, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation should, in developing and implementing future airspace redesigns, direct the Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct a benefit-cost analysis for the purpose of assessing the economic effect of alternatives for airspace redesigns (including the status quo). Such an analysis should include an assessment of the key impacts associated with redesigning the airspace, including implementation costs and, as appropriate, the economic effect associated with noise.
Closed – Not Implemented
In July, 2012, FAA notified GAO that the FAA will not implement this recommendation because (1) no other airspace redesigns have been initiated by FAA since NY/NJ/PHL and, (2) it has not been implemented within any FAA guidance because it is FAA's view that each redesign is unique and project specific.

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