Washington, DC Office Handling Alabama-Area Calls

Have you noticed a significant change recently in flight service operations throughout the eastern third of the US? Lockheed Martin hopes not... although there has indeed been a major shift.

Lockheed representatives tell ANN the company's Automated Flight Service Station (FSS) team achieved a major milestone last week, as the flight service network's Washington, DC Hub in Leesburg, VA went live, and began using a new mission operating system called Flight Services for the 21st Century (FS21). The transition took place February 22, at 0100 EST.

"It is extremely gratifying to see the FAA/Lockheed Martin team achieve this major milestone, delivering a new level of service to the aviation community and our Flight Service Specialists," said Dan Courain, Lockheed Martin's Vice President of Aviation Services.

T he facility is the first of its kind to operate under Lockheed Martin's FS21 system, a system designed to modernize and streamline the flow of information transfer to and from pilots, by allowing all flight service stations to share the same set of nationwide data.

Under FS21, operations previously handled by 58 FSS offices under FAA purview will instead be conducted by 16 privatized field stations, along with three hub stations. Leesburg is the first such hub to go online; locations in Prescott, AZ and Fort Worth, TX are expected to follow within the next seven months.

With the transition to FS21, a so-called FSS "heritage site" in Anniston, AL ceased operations. All calls from the Anniston area are now routed to Leesburg.

It didn't take long for that to happen. Within the first minute of the switchover, the Washington Hub received a call from Southwest Airlines flight 8503, who requested clearance from Dothan, AL to Orlando, FL. Currently operating with approximately 20 flight service specialists, the Washington Hub will begin to have calls redirected to it from additional flight service areas as the transition moves forward.

Since Lockheed won the contract to privatize the FSS network in 2005, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has held Lockheed accountable for any degradation in service quality experienced by pilots working with the newly-streamlined effort. As Aero-News reported last year, AOPA surveyed its members on Lockheed's performance, and presented its concerns to the company's executives.

"We were involved in the FAA's study to contract flight service and were successful in ensuring the new system would be focused on customer service," said Melissa Rudinger, AOPA vice president of regulatory affairs. "Now we are making sure Lockheed lives up to those promises."

Rudinger adds pilots shouldn't be able to tell a difference in the services they receive from the newly-consolidated hub. "We met with Lockheed officials earlier this February to discuss the activation and ensure pilot services would not be hindered," she said.

FMI: www.lockheedmartin.com, www.aopa.org, www.faa.gov