The US Federal Aviation Administration, under pressure to replace or close some of its ageing facilities, could adopt the US Department of Defense’s base-closing process as a way to avoid Congressional interference. The process “gets Congress out of the issue”, Continental Airlines senior vice-president of government affairs Rebecca Cox told an Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA) meeting in Washington DC last week.

The independent Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission reviews closure lists compiled by the US defence secretary and sends its recommendations to the US president for his direct approval, said Cox, who has sat on two base-closure commissions. Carl McCullough, executive director of the DoD’s policy board on federal aviation, said a BRAC “takes an analytical approach and it provides a political top cover”.

While not specific in committing to a BRAC-type process, FAA administrator Marion Blakey told the ATCA meeting that the idea had merit, and said: “We need to be able to align today’s infrastructure with the future system, and there is no way to go about that without consolidation”.

Blakey said the FAA can use its administrative powers to shut facilities, but acknowledged the agency’s attempts to consolidate flight service stations, for example, had met political opposition.

KERRY EZARD/WASHINGTON DC

Source: Flight International