Future of Flight Service

AFSS5602 Junior Member

As many know over the past year or so there has been a lot of speculation on Flight Service going back to the FAA. A lot of that info was based on the current administration forcing the FAA to take flight service back. However the recent reports on what is an inherantly governmental function and what needs to go back to the government seems to not include flight service.

Therefore I did research on my own and found plans for flight service buried in FAA financial and next gen reports which I am posting here. This information is from real confirmed sources which I will post here.

The first report I will go over is the FAA National Airspace System Capital Investment Plan 2010-2014.

http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/...20Complete.pdf

This report shows long term plans through 2025 and flight service is in those plans all the way through with no plans for decommsioning of this option. (See figure 6) and the key for the chart ( See figure 4)

Lockheed Martin holds the current contract for AFSS in the CONUS till the end of 2015. As you can see on the chart at that time the FAA shows the possible consolidation of Alaska AFSS, Lockheed AFSS, and Duats into one consolidated unit. I was also able to find that this is the case by another FAA source.

https://nasea.faa.gov/decision/main/...208/tab/detail

[208] Flight Services Evolution Integrated Services and Capabilities Final Investment Decision

Description: Decision to integrate discrete Flight Service Automation Systems into a singular composite system

Target CY Date: 2016

High Priority? Yes

As you can see there are no plans for getting rid of flight service as of yet, but rather further evolution of the option. Now, as far as what this will mean for jobs is anyones guess. It is also important to note that 2016 is a long ways off and anything can happen. However, these FAA reports come out every year and even the reports from the past few years show Flight Service in them for the long haul.

GeorgeM Trusted Member CO

Flight service will never go back to what it was, with 50+ flight service stations. The FAA has gotten out of all the old AFSS sites, other than Alaska. Those buildings now belong to someone else. Don't look for them to start a massive building program, certainly not in this economy.

otterstrom Trusted Member of NATCA

back when it was FAA, flight service was a great gig. its changed so much in the last 5 years. itll continue to change and be operated with fewer and fewer people. lockheed needs to start offering stuff to pilots online like they've done with e-NOTAM for airport management. i guess thats all part of the fss/duats combo plan.

otterstrom Trusted Member of NATCA

is it just a rumor that your NOTAM position is being absorbed by the USNOF?

AFSS5602 Junior Member

We have heard talk of notams going to the notam office.
The problem is that we have around 25 to 30 people on notams
Nationwide so the notam office would need at least
That many new hires. The notams office is a gs14 job paying
Over 100k. The last opening I saw for a regular notam specialist paid 107k.
We make 85-90k so it's cheaper for us to do it.
Therefore I doubt they will take it back.