00737946

Monograph

http://www.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/153302.aspx

Since 1961, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the agency with responsibility for the National Airspace System and its facilities, has used formal staffing standards to determine staffing requirements for air traffic control facilities. In recent years, variances between estimates provided by the staffing standards and actual staffing levels at specific facilities have raised questions about the accuracy of FAA's forecasts for individual facilities. In particular, difficulties in staffing some high-activity air traffic locations, such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, have raised congressional concerns about FAA estimates of the required number of controllers at each air traffic control facility. Congress directed FAA through the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to "study the development of a comprehensive methodology whereby the FAA could determine the required number of controllers at each of its facilities" (Appendix A - Congressional Request for Staffing Standards Study). An expert panel was convened by the NAS's Transportation Research Board (TRB) to undertake the study. The study, which is presented in this TRB Special Report, reviewed the methodologies by which FAA estimates and applies its staffing standards, examined the feasibility and cost of modifying agency staffing standards and developing alternative approaches for application to individual facilities, and recommended an improvement strategy. This report is organized as follows: Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of the air traffic control system, the major facilities in which controllers work, and the nature of controllers' work. In Chapter 2, the current staffing process is described and the reasons why the current staffing standards do not provide reliable facility estimates are identified. A strategy for an improved staffing process to develop more credible facility-level staffing requirements is elaborated in Chapter 3.

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English

103 p.

1997

Transportation Research Board Special Report

0309059666

Appendices (3) ; Figures (7) ; Photos (1) ; References; Tables (6)

Accuracy; Air traffic control facilities; Analysis; Costs; Feasibility analysis; Forecasting; Manning requirements; Methodology

Cost analysis; Modifications

Aviation; Finance; Operations and Traffic Management; Terminals and Facilities

TRIS, TRB

Jun 17 1997 12:00AM