National Airspace System: Incomplete Transition Back to National 
Maintenance and Certification Standards in the Federal Aviation  
Administration's Alaskan Region (30-NOV-01, GAO-02-127R).	 
								 
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) adopted a pilot program
in 1997, known as the Corporate Maintenance Philosophy, that	 
reduced the frequency of periodic maintenance and certification  
in FAA's Alaskan Region. In 2001, the Federal Labor Relations	 
Authority ruled that FAA must revert back to the national	 
maintenance and certification standards in the Alaskan Region	 
because it had not negotiated an extension of the pilot program  
with it's unions. FAA's Alaskan Region has not fully returned to 
the national standards, but FAA officials believe that the	 
transition will be completed by January 1, 2002. Seven of 12	 
locations had finished updating maintenance and certification	 
information into FAA's computerized maintenance management system
(MMS) by the October 1, 2001, deadline. In several locations	 
where MMS had been updated, however, the standards that 	 
incorporated were not subjected to quality control checks. GAO	 
was unable to determine whether periodic maintenance conducted in
certain areas has been performed with the frequency required by  
the national guidelines. FAA is hiring additional staff to	 
perform maintenance and certifications and will appoint managers 
to check the accuracy of MMS data. The process of certifying	 
equipment to ensure that it functions according to national	 
standards had been more than 90 percent complete as of August	 
2001, according to FAA officials.				 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-02-127R					        
    ACCNO:   A02530						        
  TITLE:     National Airspace System: Incomplete Transition Back to  
National Maintenance and Certification Standards in the Federal  
Aviation Administration's Alaskan Region			 
     DATE:   11/30/2001 
  SUBJECT:   Aircraft maintenance				 
	     Maintenance standards				 
	     Quality control					 
	     FAA National Airspace System Plan			 
	     FAA Corporate Maintenance Philosophy		 
	     Program						 
             FAA Maintenance Management System