NAATS Press Release:

FAA TO CUT WEATHER BRIEFING TELEPHONE LINES

WHEATON, MD--January 23, 1997. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plans to dramatically reduce the number of telephone lines pilots use to obtain weather briefings and file flight plans, an organization of FAA employees said today. The National Association of Air Traffic Specialists (NAATS), which represents workers at Flight Service Stations throughout the US, expressed its concern that the planned reduction is unnecessary and will adversely impact aviation safety.

According to NAATS, as many as half of the telephone lines would be disconnected from the nation's 61 Automated Flight Service Stations (AFSS). The network of AFSSs provides pre-flight weather information, flight plan filing and aeronautical facility information services to pilots of air carrier, military and general aviation aircraft.

"If pilots cannot quickly obtain current, accurate information to plan their flights because their calls to an AFSS ring busy, they may be tempted to fly without the latest information. Clearly, this will result in flight delays and means that pilots and their passengers will fly into unknown weather conditions," said Gary D. Simms, executive director of the association.

The planned line cuts are the result of a study conducted by AT&T last August under a federal government contract. The study examined utilization of existing telephone lines at AFSSs to determine if the communications giant could transfer them to other customers. But Simms said the utilization of the lines during August has no relationship to their use during other times of the year. "Using a month with comparatively good weather--and fewer incoming calls--as the study's baseline means that pilots trying to obtain weather data during the winter simply won't get through," Simms added. According to Simms, icing conditions dangerous to all aircraft, large and small, are more prevalent in winter months, when calls to an AFSS peak.

"This is an issue we believe deserves national attention," Simms said. "At our own expense, NAATS has placed ads in several industry publications to let pilots around the country know that they may not be able to get the information they need when they need it. We have asked pilots around the country to contact the FAA and Congress to express their concern over these unnecessary cuts," he added. NAATS published telephone numbers for the FAA and Congress in those advertisements.

The National Association of Air Traffic Specialists is the official labor organization representing FAA's flight service controller workforce.