[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 125 (Tuesday, June 30, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37356-37358]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-15949]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration

[Docket No.: FAA-2015-1006]


Discontinuation of Airport Advisory Service in the Contiguous 
United States, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii

AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of proposed policy.

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SUMMARY: The FAA is proposing to revise its policy concerning the 
provision of Airport Advisory services. Under the proposal, Airport 
Advisory services would be discontinued in the contiguous United 
States, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. The policy would continue to apply to 
the state of Alaska only.

DATES: Submit comments on or before July 30, 2015.

ADDRESSES: You may send comments identified by docket number FAA-2015-
1006 using any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the online instructions for sending your 
comments electronically.
     Mail: Send comments to Docket Operations, M-30; U.S. 
Department of Transportation (DOT), 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Room 
W12-140, West Building Ground Floor, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: Take comments to Docket 
Operations in Room W12-140 of the West Building Ground Floor at 1200 
New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., 
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
     Fax: Fax comments to Docket Operations at 202-493-2251.
    Privacy: In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits comments 
from the public to better inform its rulemaking process. DOT posts 
these comments, without edit, including any personal information the 
commenter provides, to www.regulations.gov, as described in the system 
of records notice (DOT/ALL-14 FDMS), which can be reviewed at 
www.dot.gov/privacy.
    Docket: Background documents or comments received may be read at 
http://www.regulations.gov at any time. Follow the online instructions 
for accessing the docket or Docket Operations in Room W12-140 of the 
West Building Ground Floor at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, 
DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal 
holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alan Wilkes, Manager, Flight Service 
NAS Initiative Operations/Implementation, Federal Aviation 
Administration, 800 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20591; 
telephone 202-267-7771; Fax (202) 267-6310; email [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The criteria for providing Airport Advisory (AA) services at Flight 
Service Stations (FSS) is provided in FAA Order 7210.3, Facility 
Operation and Administration; specifically, paragraph 13-4-5, addresses 
Local Airport Advisory (LAA), Remote Airport Advisory (RAA) and Remote 
Airport Information Service (RAIS). Section (b) of that paragraph 
requires, in part, that Flight Service Stations provide RAA when the 
employee productivity factor is high enough to justify the cost of 
providing the service.\1\
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    \1\ The facility's productivity factor is determined by dividing 
the annual RAA service count by 16,000. The productivity factor is 
compared to the number of employees used to provide the service and 
must be equal
    to or greater than the number of employees needed to provide the 
service. Normally about 2.5 employees are factored annually to 
provide 10 hours of service per day.
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    In 2005, Lockheed Martin took over flight service operations at 58 
locations as part of a 5-year contract covering the Contiguous United 
States (CONUS), Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. Lockheed Martin subsequently 
consolidated operations, reducing the number of facilities from 58 to 
18 to the current number of 5. Consolidation had previously been 
recommended by stakeholders, including both the FAA and the Office of 
Inspector General (OIG), to reduce cost and improve operational 
efficiency, regardless of whether those services continued to be 
provided by the FAA, or a contractor.\2\ As part of Lockheed Martin's 
consolidation, AA services transitioned from Local Airport Advisory 
(LAA) services, located at the airport where the service is provided, 
to Remote Airport Advisory (RAA) services, not located at the airport 
where the service is provided.\3\ Additionally, FAA exercised

[[Page 37357]]

the option to extend the contract by an additional 3 years, followed by 
another 2 years.
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    \2\ OIG Report Number AV-2002-064, ``Automated Flight Service 
Stations: Significant Benefits Could Be Realized by Consolidating 
AFSS Sites in Conjunction With Deployment of OASIS,'' December 7, 
2001. IG reports and testimonies are available on our Web site: 
www.oig.dot.gov.
    \3\ On September 6, 2006 the FAA sought public comment regarding 
Notice concerning Airport Advisory Service at Certain Airports in 
the Continental United States, Excluding Alaska (71 FR 52602). This 
notice requested comment concerning the necessity, availability, 
importance, and use of the AA service. The FAA received 95 comments 
in response to the 2006 notice. When comment was solicited in 2006 
users still regularly used AA services, and because providing the 
service was written into the contract with Lockheed Martin the FAA 
did not propose to discontinue the service.
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    Today and where available, RAA service is provided upon request by 
FSS personnel via ground-to-air communication on the common traffic 
advisory frequency (CTAF) at certain airports without an operating 
control tower that have certified automated weather reporting via voice 
capability. The service provides information to pilots as needed, such 
as, wind direction and speed, favored or designated runway, altimeter 
setting, information about observed or reported traffic, weather, and 
appropriate Notice to Airman (NOTAM) information.
    Currently, Lockheed Martin provides RAA services at 19 locations. 
The requirements of the FAA flight service contract with Lockheed 
Martin have been under review in preparation for the upcoming contract 
renewal. As part of the FAA review process, the Flight Services Quality 
Assurance Evaluation Group found low usage at the locations still 
receiving the service. At 18 of the 19 remaining locations, a sample of 
historical data reflects that pilots contact the RAA service an average 
of less than 1 time per day. At Millville Municipal Airport in 
Millville, NJ, pilots contact the RAA service an average of 14 times 
per day.\4\ The frequency of RAA service no longer justifies the 
continuation of the service due to the lack of productivity.
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    \4\ Lockheed Martin contact history daily averages, July 12-26 
and October 1-15, 2014.
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    Additionally, pilots are using other information resources, such 
as, Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOS), Automated Weather 
Sensors System (AWSS), Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS), 
Unicom, and other commercial aviation information services. The 
combined resources provide the pilot the same or higher level of flight 
information as RAA service and the service has become redundant.
    The FAA proposes to discontinue the requirement for FSSs to provide 
AA services in the Contiguous United States, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii 
effective October 1, 2015, which would result in the service no longer 
being available at the remaining 19 locations. The AA services in the 
state of Alaska would not be affected by this proposed change. Alaska 
depends on aviation because of the unique challenges presented by the 
remote mountainous terrain and weather conditions across the state. By 
soliciting comment to this notice, the FAA seeks to address public 
concerns and will consider any comments in determining whether to 
change the policy.

Applicability

    The FAA proposes to revise the criteria set forth in FAA Order 
7110.10, Chapter 4, Section 4; and FAA Order 7210.3, paragraph 13-4-5 
to only be applicable to the State of Alaska. The policy would be 
discontinued at locations within the CONUS, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. If 
adopted, RAA service would no longer be provided at the following 
airports:

Altoona-Blair County Airport (AOO), Altoona, Pennsylvania;
Columbia Regional Airport (COU), Columbia, Missouri;
Elkins-Randolph Airport (EKN), Elkins, West Virginia;
Huron Regional Airport (HON), Huron, South Dakota;
Jackson-McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport (MKL), Jackson, Tennessee;
Jonesboro Municipal Airport (JBR), Jonesboro, Arkansas;
Macon-Middle Georgia Regional Airport (MCN), Macon, Georgia;
Anderson Regional Airport (AND), Anderson, South Carolina;
Anniston Metropolitan Airport (ANB), Anniston, Alabama;
Casper-Natrona County International Airport (CPR), Casper, Wyoming;
Gainesville Regional Airport (GNV), Gainesville, Florida;
Grand Forks International Airport (GFK), Grand Forks, North Dakota;
Greenwood-Leflore Airport (GWO), Greenwood, Mississippi;
Louisville-Bowman Field Airport (LOU), Louisville, Kentucky;
Millville Municipal Airport (MIV), Millville, New Jersey;
Prescott-Ernest A. Love Field Airport (PRC), Prescott, Arizona;
St. Louis-Spirit of St. Louis Airport (SUS), St. Louis, Missouri;
St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (PIE), St. Petersburg, 
Florida; and
Miami-Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport (TMB), Miami, Florida.

II. Additional Information

A. Comments Invited

    The FAA invites interested persons to participate in this notice by 
submitting written comments, data, or views. The agency also invites 
comments relating to the economic, environmental, energy, or federalism 
impacts that might result from adopting the notice in this document. 
The most helpful comments reference a specific portion of the notice, 
explain the reason for any recommended change, and include supporting 
data. To ensure the docket does not contain duplicate comments, 
commenters should send only one copy of written comments, or if 
comments are filed electronically, commenters should submit only one 
time.
    The FAA will file in the docket all comments it receives, as well 
as a report summarizing each substantive public contact with FAA 
personnel concerning this action. Before acting on this notice, the FAA 
will consider all comments it receives on or before the closing date 
for comments. The FAA will consider comments filed after the comment 
period has closed if it is possible to do so without incurring expense 
or delay. The agency may change this notice in light of the comments it 
receives.
    Proprietary or Confidential Business Information: Do not file 
proprietary or confidential business information in the docket. Such 
information must be sent or delivered directly to the person identified 
in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document, and 
marked as proprietary or confidential. If submitting information on a 
disk or CD-ROM, mark the outside of the disk or CD-ROM, and identify 
electronically within the disk or CD-ROM the specific information that 
is proprietary or confidential.
    Under 14 CFR 11.35(b), if the FAA is aware of proprietary 
information filed with a comment, the agency does not place it in the 
docket. It is held in a separate file to which the public does not have 
access, and the FAA places a note in the docket that it has received 
it. If the FAA receives a request to examine or copy this information, 
it treats it as any other request under the Freedom of Information Act 
(5 U.S.C. 552). The FAA processes such a request under Department of 
Transportation procedures found in 49 CFR part 7.

B. Availability of Documents

    An electronic copy of rulemaking documents may be obtained from the 
Internet by--
    1. Searching the Federal eRulemaking Portal (http://www.regulations.gov);
    2. Visiting the FAA's Regulations and Policies Web page at http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies or
    3. Accessing the Government Printing Office's Web page at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/.
    Copies may also be obtained by sending a request to the Federal 
Aviation Administration, Office of Rulemaking, ARM-1, 800 Independence 
Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20591, or by calling (202) 267-9680. 
Commenters must identify the docket or amendment number of this notice.

[[Page 37358]]

    All documents the FAA considered in developing this notice, 
including economic analyses and technical reports, may be accessed from 
the Internet through the Federal eRulemaking Portal referenced in item 
(1) above.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on June 23, 2015.
Jeanne Giering,
Director of Flight Services.
[FR Doc. 2015-15949 Filed 6-29-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-13P