This initial report provides (1) an overview of FAA’s progress to date in implementing free flight, including Flight 2000 (now the Free Flight Operational Enhancement Program), and (2) the views of the aviation community and FAA on the challenges that must be met to implement free flight cost-effectively. While working to implement the 44 recommendations, FAA and stakeholders agreed on the need to focus their efforts on deploying technologies designed to provide early benefits to users. These efforts led to consensus on a phased approach to implementing free flight—beginning with Free Flight Phase 1—including the core technologies to be used and the locations where the technologies will be deployed under this first phase, scheduled to be implemented by 2002. Since late 1995, FAA and stakeholders have been working on various free flight recommendations and many associated initiatives and, in August 1996, agreed on an action plan to guide their implementation. As a first step toward the phased implementation of free flight, FAA—in coordination with stakeholders—outlined a plan for Free Flight Phase 1 in early 1998. The challenges for FAA are to (1) provide effective leadership and management of modernization efforts—including cross-program communication and coordination; (2) develop plans—in collaboration with the aviation community—that are sufficiently detailed to move forward with the implementation of free flight—including the identification of clear goals and measures for tracking the progress of the modernization efforts; (3) address outstanding issues related to the development and deployment of technology—such as the need to improve the agency’s process for ensuring that new equipment is safe for its intended use and methods for considering human factors; and (4) address other issues, such as the need for FAA to coordinate its modernization and free flight efforts with those of the international community and integrate free flight technologies. These concerns include, among others, the need for (1) FAA—in collaboration with stakeholders—to develop clear goals and objectives for what it intends to achieve, as well as a measurement system for tracking progress, and (2) FAA and stakeholders to develop detailed plans that will allow for the cost-effective implementation of free flight. Such procedures will affect a wide range of operations. In contrast, until recently FAA and stakeholders have been sharply divided over the agency’s plans for conducting Flight 2000—a limited demonstration of free-flight-related communication, navigation, and surveillance technologies—primarily in Alaska and Hawaii. In fact, the Department of Transportation’s fiscal year 1998 appropriation act prohibited FAA from spending any fiscal year 1998 funds on the Flight 2000 program. To address these concerns, FAA has been working collaboratively with stakeholders—through RTCA—to develop a roadmap (general plans) for restructuring Flight 2000. FAA is currently considering this RTCA proposal. Stakeholders agreed with this assessment. FAA Needs to Integrate Free Flight Technologies

Some FAA officials and stakeholders told us that the agency needs to integrate free flight technologies with one another and into the operating air traffic control system.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the: (1) status of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) efforts to implement free flight, including a planned operational demonstration formerly known as Flight 2000 and now called the Free Flight Operational Enhancement Program; and (2) views of the aviation community and FAA on the challenges that must be met to implement free flight in a cost-effective manner.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) since 1994, FAA officials and stakeholders, under the leadership of the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA), have been collaborating to implement free flight; (2) these early efforts led to a definition of free flight, a set of recommendations, and an action plan to gradually move toward a more flexible operating system; (3) while working to implement the recommendations, FAA and stakeholders agreed on the need to focus their efforts on deploying technologies that will provide early benefits to users; (4) in early 1998, FAA and stakeholders developed a strategy that calls for the phased implementation of free flight, beginning with Free Flight Phase 1; (5) under this first phase, FAA and stakeholders have agreed upon the core technologies that are expected to provide these early benefits, as well as the locations where they will be deployed; (6) however, until recently, FAA and many stakeholders have not agreed on how best to conduct a limited operational demonstration of free-flight-related technologies and procedures--known as the Flight 2000 Program; (7) FAA is currently prohibited from spending any fiscal year 1998 funds on the Flight 2000 demonstration itself; (8) stakeholders concurred that FAA had yet to develop a detailed plan for conducting this demonstration; (9) to address the concerns of stakeholders, FAA has been working with them--under the leadership of RTCA--to restructure the Flight 2000 demonstration; and (10) FAA and stakeholders have identified numerous challenges that will need to be met if free flight--including Flight Phase 1 and Flight 2000--is to be implemented cost-effectively: (a) stakeholders told GAO that FAA will need to provide effective leadership and management of the modernization efforts both within and outside the agency; (b) stakeholders cited the need for FAA to further develop its plans for implementing free flight, including establishing clear goals for what it intends to achieve and developing measures for tracking the progress of modernization and free flight; (c) FAA and stakeholders agreed on the need to address outstanding issues related to technology development and deployment; and (d) FAA and stakeholders also identified a range of other challenges that will need the agency's attention, including coordinating FAA's modernization and free flight efforts with those of the international community and integrating the various technologies that will be used under free flight operations with one another as well as into the air traffic control system.