FAA announces organizational overhaul

The Federal Aviation Administration unveiled a major reorganization Tuesday that consolidates offices and management positions and calls for the agency to do a comprehensive analysis to determine if its workforce should be downsized.

Under the plan, the FAA will eliminate current "stovepipe" offices and management positions in favor of new business units and groups, said Russ Chew, who was lured away from American Airlines to develop the reform plan as the FAA's first chief operating officer. Among other changes, the plan designates certain FAA executives as vice presidents of the new business units.

The shakeup is intended to make the FAA leaner and more responsive to Congress, the flying public and employees, said the agency's administrator, Marion Blakey. "The FAA is going to be a much more accountable, efficient and performance-based organization," she said.

However, Chew and Blakey said it is too early to know if the plan will result in downsizing.

Chew said the FAA will do a comprehensive analysis of activities during the next six months to determine what positions, if any, should be eliminated. "We don't know what the real balance of federal employees and contractors should be," he said.

Blakey said the plan will require a crossover of employees and reassignments. She said the FAA has to analyze what each employee does and determine what functions are needed and how the agency can best use its people and resources.

The plan was praised on Tuesday by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. The union's president, John Carr, called it "bold and smart" and "a shot in the arm to the FAA" because it does not remove air traffic control from the FAA and creates a "bottom-up structure that corrects the current overly complicated management structure."

"Many people in the aviation community, including myself, thought [Chew] was just here to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic," Carr said. "Russ' plan gives us a realistic chance at missing the iceberg."

The FAA will spend several months establishing new performance standards for safety, service, cost and productivity, Chew said. The new vice presidents will take the helm of their respective units within two months and then make recommendations on further changes.

The new business units are responsible for en route and oceanic services; terminal services; flight services; systems operations; and technical operations. An additional air traffic safety oversight office will be created in the next few weeks.

A significant component of the plan is that it allows the individual business units to take the lead in research and acquisition efforts to meet their needs. Under the old system, a separate research and acquisition office did the work for all FAA components.

"It's kind of like asking your neighbor to buy a stereo for you," Chew said. "You're not going to get what you want."

Chew called the plan a "defining moment" for the FAA that will allow the agency to evolve in new directions.

"Change is not necessarily visible from the outside, but the key element is that you can't change 38,000 people overnight and you can't change them all," he said. "In two years, our success will be measured by the credibility we have in managing our money, our services and the expectation of our [customers]."