By CHET DEMBECK Federal Times Sept 16,2002

The Federal Aviation Administration has launched a study into the potential savings of outsourcing 2,400 air traffic specialists� positions.

Air traffic specialists man 75 flight service stations throughout the country that provide pilots with flight plans and the latest weather information. They also assist pilots in search-and-rescue missions.

William Shumann, a spokesman for the FAA, said the study began in late August and would be completed within 16 months.

Shumann said the study did not represent a decision to privatize the jobs.

�We�re just initiating a competitive-sourcing study under the rules of the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76,� Shumann said. The circular requires competition between contractors and federal workers before federal jobs can be outsourced.

Wally Pike, president of the National Association of Air Traffic Specialists in Wheaton, Md., said the study is already acting as a morale killer for the 2,400 air traffic specialists.

�We�re already short-staffed,� Pike said. �Now, the FAA wants to hand safety over to the lowest bidder.�

The study comes less than two months after President Bush�s June 4 executive order removing the term �inherently governmental� from the definition of air traffic controllers. That technically would allow the administration to allow private-sector competition for air traffic control jobs, However, Shumann said there are no plans to do so. The administration has said the change was to recognize that some air traffic controller jobs at smaller airports already are filled by contractors.

�Air traffic controllers are not the same as flight service specialists,� Shumann said. �They don�t perform the same functions.�

Pike disagrees with FAA�s assessment.

�It is a first step,� Pike said.

Moving from a federal work force to a private contractor is not necessarily a bad idea, said Robert Poole, who advised the Bush campaign on transportation issues.

Poole, director of transportation studies at the Reason Public Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Los Angeles, has been leading a campaign to privatize air traffic control. He lobbied the White House to remove the inherently governmental designation from air traffic controllers, but said he had no information that the study of air traffic specialists� jobs is a step toward outsourcing air traffic controllers.

�But the air traffic specialists study could lead to some good savings,� Poole said. �We might find we can do more for less.�

Poole said he believes that overseeing the safety of the nation�s air traffic is an inherently governmental task, but that controlling traffic is not.