Key to this collaboration will be the work of JPDO’s seven  partner agencies: the Departments of Transportation, Commerce, Defense,  and Homeland Security; FAA; the National Aeronautics and Space  Administration (NASA); and the White House Office of Science and  Technology Policy. ATO Has Taken Steps to Improve ATC Modernization, but Challenges Remain

To improve its management of ATC modernization, ATO has taken steps  toward having a more results-oriented culture; a flatter, more accountable  management structure; and more businesslike management and  acquisition processes. For the  past 2 fiscal years, FAA has met its acquisition performance goals. ATO has begun to revise its business processes to increase accountability. The technical difficulties encountered with LAAS, among other  things, led FAA to suspend this acquisition. ATO Faces Human Capital Challenges in Creating a More Results-Oriented Culture and Hiring and Training Thousands of Air Traffic Controllers

ATO faces a challenge in sustaining and institutionalizing management  focus on its transformation to an effective PBO and a results-oriented  culture. In the past, air traffic  controllers were permanently assigned to FAA’s major system acquisition  program offices and provided input into air traffic control modernization  projects. I will now discuss the status of JPDO’s planning efforts. JPDO Has Made Progress in Planning for NGATS, but Faces Challenges and Opportunities in Several Areas

JPDO has engaged in practices that facilitate collaboration among its  partner agencies, but faces challenges in continuing to leverage resources  from these agencies and in defining the roles and responsibilities of the  various entities involved. JPDO has been structured to involve both federal  and nonfederal stakeholders, but maintaining the support of nonfederal  stakeholders over the long term and soliciting the participation of some  stakeholders may prove difficult. ATO has primary  responsibility for the ATC system’s current and near-term modernization,  while JPDO has responsibility for planning and coordinating a  transformation to NGATS over the next 20 years. However, as mentioned, no current air traffic controllers are involved in  NGATS. Two fundamental pieces of this technical planning  are modeling and developing an enterprise architecture (a tool, or  blueprint, for understanding and planning complex systems). Development of  the NGATS enterprise architecture is critical to JPDO’s planning efforts,  and many of JPDO’s future activities will depend on the robustness and  timeliness of its architecture development. ATO Has Begun to Take a Number of Steps to Address Rising Operating Costs

To address rising operating costs and improve performance, ATO has  developed a formal cost control program that includes completing the  development of a cost accounting system and using information from the  system to conduct activity value analysis—that is, to assess the value of its  products and services to its customers. The cost control program also  includes conducting annual business case reviews, primarily for its capital  programs, and assisting Congress in identifying funding priorities. To  control costs, ATO is decommissioning and consolidating ATC facilities,  improving its contract management, pursuing cost reduction opportunities  through outsourcing, and avoiding or reducing personnel costs through  workforce attrition and efficiency gains. However, ATO has thousands of navigational aids in use, many of which  could be decommissioned during the transition to NGATS. Also,  much of the NGATS planning and implementation depends on the  development of the NGATS enterprise architecture. Going forward, efforts  to control costs and leverage resources will become even more critical.
Why GAO Did This Study

Over a decade ago, GAO listed the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) effort to modernize the nation's air traffic control (ATC) system as a high-risk program because of systemic management and acquisition problems. Two relatively new offices housed within FAA--the Air Traffic Organization (ATO) and the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO)--are now primarily responsible for planning and implementing these modernization efforts. Congress created ATO to be a performance-based organization that would improve both the agency's culture, structure, and processes, and the ATC modernization program's performance and accountability. Congress created JPDO, made up of seven partner agencies, to coordinate the federal and nonfederal stakeholders necessary to plan a transition from the current air transportation system to the "next generation air transportation system" (NGATS). This statement is based on GAO's recently completed and ongoing studies of the ATC modernization program. GAO provides information on (1) the status of ATO's efforts to improve the ATC modernization program, (2) the status of JPDO's planning efforts for NGATS, and (3) actions to control costs and leverage resources for ATC modernization and the transformation to NGATS.

What GAO Found

ATO has taken a number of steps as a performance-based organization to improve the ATC modernization program, but continued management attention will be required to institutionalize these initiatives. ATO has adopted core values, streamlined its management, and begun to revise its acquisition processes to become more businesslike and accountable. For the past 2 years, ATO has met its major acquisition performance goals. ATO still faces challenges, including sustaining its transformation to a results-oriented culture, hiring and training thousands of air traffic controllers, and ensuring stakeholder involvement in major system acquisitions. JPDO has made progress in planning for NGATS by facilitating collaboration among federal agencies, ensuring the participation of federal and nonfederal stakeholders, addressing technical planning, and factoring global harmonization into its planning, but JPDO faces challenges in continuing to leverage the partner agencies' resources and in defining the roles and responsibilities of the various agencies involved. JPDO could find it difficult to sustain the support of stakeholders over the longer term and to generate participation from some key stakeholders, such as current air traffic controllers. JPDO has taken steps to develop an enterprise architecture (the blueprint for NGATS) and will have an early version later this year. The robustness and timeliness of this enterprise architecture are critical to many of JPDO's future NGATS planning activities. ATO has taken a number of actions to control costs and maximize capital funds, which will become increasingly important during the transition to NGATS. ATO has established cost control as one of its key performance metrics, developed a cost accounting system, and is using its performance management system to hold its managers accountable for controlling costs. ATO has developed a formal cost control program that includes, among other things, (1) conducting annual business case reviews for its capital programs, (2) decommissioning and consolidating ATC facilities, and (3) pursuing cost reduction opportunities through outsourcing. These cost control initiatives represent an important first step to improved performance but will require review and monitoring.