Thu, Nov 26, 2009
Only Six Individual FSS Offices Will Remain
Lockheed Martin, which won a
10-year, $1.7 billion contract in 2005 to operate the flight
service system for the FAA, says it will close seven of the
remaining 13 FSS facilities in February of next year. There were 58
such facilities when Lockheed won the contract 4 years ago.
Lockheed Martin Spokeswoman Jan Gottfredsen told the Lansing
State Journal the move is due to decreased demand nationwide.
“There’s been a general decline in general aviation
traffic,” Gottfredsen said. “This will enable us to
meet the performance level with fewer facilities.”
AOPA reports that the facilities slated for closure
include Columbia, Missouri; Honolulu; Kankakee, Illinois;
Lansing, Michigan; Nashville, Tennessee; Seattle, Washington; and
St. Petersburg, Florida.
Some 160 Lockheed employees will be displaced. Lockheed said it
will work with employees to find other positions in the
company, and will offer reverence packages. But
workers will not be transfered to other FSS facilities
within the system.
Jim Curlin, a 12-year employee at the Lansing,
Michigan station, told the Lansing State Journal
“Lansing flight service is critical to the aviation community
as it provides years of experience dealing with the complex Great
Lakes weather patterns and flight planning.” But many of the
users of the new automated system say there has been no degradation
of the information available.
Gottfredsen told the Columbia Daily Tribune the switch from
dozens of individual service sites to an automated nationwide
network has made the flow of information to pilots more
efficient.
“The important thing is that the consolidation is going to
be done without any loss to the general aviation community that we
serve,” Gottfredsen said. “Because of the improvements
that we experience through the automated system, we found ourselves
in an overstaffed situation.”
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